Characters / God of War Series - Odin

God of War characters index
Protagonists: Kratos | Atreus
Greek Era: Gods (Zeus) | Titans | Mythology's Heroes | Other Beings | Normal Humans | Characters from Comics
Norse Era: Gods (Odin | Thor | Mimir | Baldur | Heimdall | Freya) | Jotnar | Other Characters (Sindri and Brok) | Monsters

---

Odin

Voiced by: Richard Schiff (English), Shouzou Sasaki (Japanese)^{additional VAs}Carlos Campanile (Brazilian Portuguese)

"This all started long before you showed up. You are a nobody. A plague. God killer!"

^{Click here to see his appearance in God of War (2018)}:

"Everyone's got me all wrong. You think war drives me? Or power? Wealth? Nah. Never have. Know what drives me? What I really want? I want answers."

The Norse god of battle, royalty, knowledge, hanging and magic, All-Father of the Nine Realms and ruler of the Aesir. He is the eldest son of Borr, the father of Thor and Baldur, grandfather of Magni, Modi, and Thrúd, widowed husband of Fjörgyn, and ex-husband of Freya.

After slaying Ymir, Odin used the first Giant's corpse to mold Midgard and ruled over the nine realms with an unbreakable grip. His ruthless cunning and charismatic leadership enthralled many gods and mortals over his lifetime allowing Odin to exploit his subjects in a growing hunger for life's hidden wisdoms.

He remains unseen throughout Kratos and Atreus' first adventure, instead spying on them via his magical ravens – the Eyes of Odin. After the beginning of Fimbulwinter however, Odin makes his first appearance seemingly seeking peace with Kratos in the hopes of averting Ragnarök.

---

#-C

• 0% Approval Rating: He is originally viewed as a Villain with Good Publicity out of fear by Asgard until his plans come apart. In the other realms he's despised as his actions caused endless suffering and when he is killed no one mourns him.
• Abusive Parents:
  • He manipulated Baldur into doing his bidding by saying the cure to his invulnerability rested in Jotunheim.
  • Ragnarök shows Odin's relationship with his son Thor is purely abusive. Odin insults the thunder god's dead sons Magni and Modi to his face, talks to him exclusively through derision and tries to get him to break his hard-earned sobriety. Per Mimir, Odin would even beat Thor in his youth.
• Adaptational Villainy: Probably the single biggest recipient of this treatment in the series which is saying something given what was foisted on the Olympians (and without the evils of Pandora's Box infecting them). While Odin in myths was often deceitful, treacherous and sometimes even cruel he didn't do despicable actions such as killing Gróa, tricking Skadi into killing her father, dominating the Dwarves with an iron fist or abusing his family. Sadly Mythtaken and Sadly Mythcharacterized are at play by flipping around his closest relationships to ones of abuse and manipulation — for example, whereas in the myths Odin rode to Helheim to reanimate a seeress to tell him Baldur's bane after his son had terrible dreams and laid the ring Draupnir upon Baldr's pyre during his funeral, in the games he is more interested in Baldur for his value to him, giving more attention to his usefulness as his best tracker than anything else after his death.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite everything he's done in the name of his self-serving thirst for knowledge, his final moments cast him in a rather pitiful light. His battle with Kratos, Atreus and Freya ends with the three of them working together to beat him black and blue, leaving him a bloody wreck on the floor. After this, he's left trying to excuse his actions, sadly rebuffing Atreus' final attempt to reach out to him by saying that he can't and won't stop trying to uncover life's secrets. Atreus sounds genuinely sad as he proceeds to imprison Odin's soul in a marble.
• All for Nothing: Two variants revolve around his attempts to analyze and defy fate.
  • His attempts to stop Ragnarök gave a good reason for the other realms to rally against him. If he had listened to Mimir and Týr he could have had prevented Ragnarök or had more allies on his side by the time of the event.
  • Aside from defying fate his biggest life's work has been trying to gather pieces of a mask that would allow him to look into a green void supposed to house infinite knowledge. He gets Atreus to find the pieces but reveals himself evil enough for him to break the mask and seal off the void rather than let him have it.
• Always Someone Better: He and Zeus, as their pantheon's respective Top God, are this to one another on different levels;
  • Odin to Zeus: Strategically, Odin's willingness to use deception, gaslighting, emotional manipulation, and propaganda to hinder any resistance and control his allies made him a far more effective leader than Zeus' brute force, to where Kratos and his allies have major difficulty uniting the Realms against him whether due to economic control or misplaced loyalty. On a more personal level, his deception and planning place a rift between father and son AND give him a seat at the very resistance intent on overthrowing him. Even in combat, whereas Zeus was defeated in a difficult battle, it was also one-on-one, and ultimately Kratos was able to defeat his father with a brutal one-sided beat down. Odin on the other hand, required not only the power of Ragnarok to even reach him through his forces, but proved capable of besting Kratos and Atreus easily on his own, only being defeated by them working together with Freya. However...
  • Zeus to Odin: ...Kratos had just come off from fighting Thor, Odin's mightiest warrior, whilst Odin was fresh by comparison; Zeus battled Kratos numerous times in quick succession, and with Zeus pulling out every stop Kratos only won with Hope, a power said to be mightier than any god's. Also, whilst Odin is followed because of his power, Zeus commands the genuine loyalty of his godly family, even whilst weakened; once his allies understand just how bad he is, Odin loses their support, whilst the Olympians, even if some believed Zeus had grown worse, still put their lives on the line to protect him. As a matter of fact, where Zeus differs from Odin is that he was intrinsically tied to the Greek world, with his death plunging it into complete chaos without his presence maintaining order; Odin was only "vital" to the Nine Realms because of enterprise, colonization and conquest enabling him control, as there is no outright negative consequence with his death.
• Amazon Chaser: Subverted. Skaði, the best archer and huntress among the giants has been among the many women that have caught his eye; however, Mimir attributes his courtship to Odin's belief that "she would bear him strong sons". Freya was the Queen of the Valkyries and a warrior at heart, and though he pretended to love her, their marriage was one of convenience to broker peace between Asgard and Vanaheim and he sought her Vanir magic for his own ends. After she finally left he cursed her to never harm another living creature even in self-defense and hid away her Valkyrie wings thus robbing her of warrior spirit.
• Ambition Is Evil: Everything he does is for knowledge and control. He eventually turned his eye to Ragnarök and now devotes himself to it.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: When Odin was finally killed during Ragnarök his death was met with acclaim across the nine realms. Even the Aesir who were indoctrinated to follow the All-Father to their deaths did not care since they were fully aware of who he truly was. The only people who seem to genuinely be angry are the Einherjar who are implied to be brainwashed into loyalty on top of literally owing Odin their unlives and the Valkyrie Gná who hates Freya as a traitor.
• Animal Motifs: Naturally, ravens and crows for Odin. They are scattered all across the realm. In Ragnarok his cape invokes a raven's wings and has bird imagery on it.
• Apple of Discord: He's very good at spreading this amongst his enemies to divide and turn them against each other rather than himself using his vast knowledge to say exactly the right things to cause friction whilst appearing as a reasonable mediator on a surface level. One example would be how he initially comes to Kratos' home apparently under the guise of claiming to want to have a peace talk to avoid Ragnarok and the brewing conflict with the greek god despite the blood debts he owes, but then casually reveals that what he really wants is for Atreus to cease searching for Týr, revealing his son's duplicity to Kratos and driving a wedge between them. This is actually a Batman Gambit to convince them both to search for and rescue 'Tyr' — actually Odin himself in disguise — enabling him to use the face and reputation of a trusted ally to further surreptitiously drive Atreus away from Kratos and towards helping him in Asgard such as casually calling Atreus a 'champion' in conversation, sparking further arguments over Atreus' apparent destiny whilst 'Tyr' apologised for his 'mistake'.
• Arch-Enemy: Taking the center stage as the Big Bad of Ragnarok, the Allfather has quite a few.
  • Has been Freya's ever since he cursed her, manipulating their son Baldur into doing his bidding and causing all the grief and turmoil in her life. She spends most of Ragnarök trying to initiate the Norse apocalypse just so she can finally kill him. And when she finally decides to let go of her vengeance and keep Odin's soul inside Atreus' Soul Jar Sindri comes in and destroys it without hesitation as Odin made himself his most hated enemy after killing Brok.
  • Mimir (who was one of Odin's closest allies) has been one of his more personal enemies ever since the Smartest Man Alive saw how awful Odin really was leaving Odin to condemn him to a Fate Worse than Death by sealing him within a tree and torturing him every day for 109 winters. Even in Ragnarok their mutual hatred is on full display whenever they interact and Mimir spends much of the games reminding the others of Odin's psychopathic nature.
  • Played With in regards to Kratos. While the God of War is Older and Wiser, no longer blindly follows a desire for vengeance and wants no part of Ragnarok, Odin has manipulated him disguised as Tyr, threatened those close to him, murdered Brok, one of his few true friends, alienated Atreus from him and threatened his son's life more than once. In many ways he's just like the Jerkass Gods from his homeland he loathed so deeply. Kratos doesn't seek war but makes it abundantly clear that if it comes to it he'll gladly kill Odin for all he's done.
    Odin: Hey, I don't move, you don't move! Don't do anything you'll regret.
    Kratos: I regret many things. Killing you will not be one of them.
  • The Jotnar of the Nine Realms have been driven to almost extinction because of Odin's Irrational Hatred of them and spending eternity waging war against them.
  • Becomes Sindri's most hated enemy after murdering Brok before his eyes while disguised as Tyr. In fact, even after Freya overcomes her hatred of him and learns to move on the pain is still fresh with Sindri and he destroys Odin's Soul Jar, condemning him to an eternal nonexistence without a shred of hesitation.
• The Archmage: It's not directly pointed out but he is the God of Magic, both when it comes to subtler, pervasive curses and the copious amounts of elemental pain he'll send your way once you fight him. Even Freya was unable to break some of the spells Odin placed on her without assistance.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Some time before the events of the Norse saga Odin decided to hang himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, impale himself with his own spear and then bleed to death over the Well of Destiny so that he could plunder the secrets of Yggdrasil and the undead realms. After nine days the World Tree figured out his plans and forcibly kicked him back to the land of the living. Given his later characterisation of being deeply concerned with The Nothing After Death and concerned with his own fated end before he knows 'what comes next' it's left unclear if this actually happened as was claimed, was a near-death experience or something else entirely. Kratos and Freya later find the noose he hung himself with which she uses as a focus for a binding spell on him but it's left unclear if he really risked coming so close to death when the rest of his screen time in Ragnarök portrays him as a Dirty Coward who refuses to ever face someone like Kratos without precautions first.
  • The Valhalla DLC confirms that he did apparently die, or get near enough to it for Valhalla to accept him for its challenges. The realm can only be accessed by those who have come Back from the Dead, with Kratos and Mimir's own past experiences qualifying them, and Týr also managing to count, albeit on a technicality due to the manner in which he regained his lost arm involving the underworld. Týr confirms that Odin could also access it, likely on the same principles that allow him entry as well, but due to the Trials requiring one to self-reflect to progress, he never got anything out of them.
• Badass Boast: His very first line is an understated but no less effective one that lets both Kratos and Atreus know exactly who they're dealing with.
  Odin: You know who I am.
• Bait the Dog:
  • At first Odin comes across as an unscrupulous Reasonable Authority Figure and not quite as bad as Mimir described. It’s all an act to get Kratos to not go after him and a way to sweet talk Atreus into giving Odin what he wants.
  • At first glance Odin allowing Skjoldr and other Midgardians suffering through Fimbulwinter to live in a village just outside Asgard's wall seems like a surprising display of generosity for the otherwise ruthless All-Father. Come Ragnarok, Kratos and co. learn the hard way he only took said Midgardians in to serve as unwitting meat shields for when his enemies come a-knocking.
• Barred from the Afterlife: Due to his unique position in having orchestrated its creation Odin cannot benefit from passing onto Valhalla like the other Aesir. In a very, very rare moment of honesty, Odin reveals his fear that motivates him so greatly is not just the idea of a prophecy that comes to be a result of actions he refuses to accept are his fault, but the fact there might be nothing waiting for him on the other side due to his very particular existence in the first place... and the thought that he might not last forever drives him mad with paranoia.
  • Though Vallhalla reveals he was lying about having created the titular location, leaving it up in the air if this was actually the case. Either way, it's a moot point considering Sindri destroyed his soul marble and prevented him from reaching any afterlife.
• Beard of Evil: Unlike the other bearded Aesir we see, who opt for Viking-style beards, Odin sports a goatee that accentuates his Grandpa God appearance.
• Being Evil Sucks: He's convinced himself that everything he does, whether it be enslavement, filicide, fratricide, or outright genocide, will be worth the answers he can get from the rift. When Atreus breaks the mask and seals the rift in defiance, Odin's infuriated and cannot comprehend that everything he's done has been rendered moot. After the fight, Atreus tells him that everything that happened was his own fault and nobody else's but while Odin accepts this, he's so distraught that his life's mission became utterly meaningless he doesn't bother to lie when he says he will never stop looking for answers.
• Believing Their Own Lies: As part of his inability to accept responsibility for his wrongdoings, Odin genuinely appears to have convinced himself that he's a victim or otherwise unfairly maligned, despite having a very well documented laundry list detailing his nature as an abuser and oppressive tyrant. Mimir says it best, "If he tells you snow is white, he's lying!"
  • When he nonchalantly gifts Ingrid to Atreus he reacts to Atreus' thanks by ruefully noting that everyone else "says he's the bad guy", ignoring that he stole Ingrid from Freyr, and kept the sentient sword imprisoned in his study.
  • He claims that Kratos and Atreus have destroyed his family and kingdom by "turning them against [him]", nevermind how he'd already driven away most of them through mistreatment long before the Kratos had even come to Midgard.
  • He goes as far as to deny responsibility for Thor's death to Thrud while still holding the spear rammed through his son's disintegrating body, and refers to striking her with Mjolnir when Thrud attacks him as "saving her" without a trace of irony.
• Beyond Redemption: After the Final Boss fight against him in Ragnarök, Atreus gives Odin a Last-Second Chance to just walk away. But Odin outright says that he'll never stop searching for knowledge, and that he won't stop his path of misery and destruction if that means getting what he wants. Atreus is momentarily stunned at Odin's response, but decides then and there that Odin's plans have to be stopped at any cost, and puts Odin's spirit in a Soul Jar so that he can't hurt anyone else. And then Sindri, still driven by vengeance, snatches the Soul Jar out of Atreus' hand and smashes it with his hammer, rendering the All-Father Deader than Dead.
• Big Bad: Odin is the main antagonist of Ragnarök and overarching threat of the series' Norse era. Every other member of the Aesir who oppose Kratos and Atreus are acting on his behalf, and the things that go wrong beyond Kratos and Atreus' control are a result of his manipulations.
• Big Brother Is Watching: He has his ravens spy on everyone across the lands. One side mission has Kratos dispatching his winged spies.
• Big "NO!": When Atreus incapacitates Huginn and Freya kills Muninn during the final boss fight. Also, when Atreus breaks the mask, rendering all the centuries-long work Odin has done to decipher its powers meaningless
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In Ragnarök, Odin comes off as more than a little rude and arrogant when Kratos and Atreus meet him in person, but he overall seems to be a Reasonable Authority Figure who wants to avoid a war, is willing to forgive blood debts, and in his own way truly cares about his people and the Nine Realms. Atreus even comes to consider him a sort of mentor and secondary father-figure. It's all an act to manipulate people, and the characters slowly realize how selfish and cruel Odin truly is.
• Blatant Lies: When Kratos meets with Odin midway through the game Odin claims Kratos knows nothing of godhood because no one worshipped him. However, II clearly shows that Kratos was at least worshipped by his fellow Spartans who were some of the only people from Greece that Kratos genuinely cared for. Their spirits even fought alongside Kratos in III after Sparta was destroyed by Zeus.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Odin's lust for knowledge makes him the brains to Thor's brawn. Although Thor isn't a saint either he's at least trying to do the right thing by his family and is eventually convinced that Odin doesn't dominate him if he stands up to him. Odin however, commits every atrocity imaginable because he's convinced it'll be worth the answers he'll find from the rift. More pointedly he's the scheming, physically unimpressive Big Bad of a story where the main protagonist/playable character is a gigantic slab of muscle who underwent his Heel–Face Turn a while ago and is now a gruff and unsociable but broadly decent man.
• Bullying the Disabled:
  • According to Mimir, he encountered Hrungnir and was amused by his naivety and gullibility. He then invited him to Asgard and gave him enough mead to become drunk enough to be goaded into embarrassing himself with empty threats and boasts in front of Asgard's court. Thor arrived, took one look at the drunken mess, and killed Hrungnir by smashing his head to pieces. Odin and the court couldn't stop laughing as Hrungnir was beaten to death, laughing even harder as his body landed on top of Thor.
  • There is also the way he treated his son Baldur, withholding a cure for his condition under the agreement that Baldur would find and kill the last Jotunn, only to reveal that he has no such cure for Baldur's condition or outright refusing to give it to him for failing so many times.
• Character Catchphrase: He has several variants of "don't overthink it" during the game which he directs to numerous other characters, particularly Thor. This reflects his Control Freak personality: he expects everyone to just do as they're told and not ask questions.
• Children as Pawns:
  • Odin has no qualms about sending the young Atreus (who is about 14) and his own granddaughter Thrúd (who appears to be in her late teens) to Helheim to find a piece of the mask. Granted, he sends Heimdall to "supervise" them, but upon arriving in Helheim, Heimdall dips out on a secret mission Odin entrusted him with, leaving the two younger teenagers alone.
  • While his children are adults by the time the games start, it's mentioned and even shown that Odin views Thor and Baldur as nothing more than tools for him to use, and had taught them to be that way since was involved in their lives. When he learns of Baldur's death the previous game, he's more upset that he lost a "his best tracker" than his own son. And later when Thor is killed by his hand, Odin acts like he just broke or misplaced his most valuable tools. Even in the final battle against Kratos, Atreus, Freya, and Mimir, Odin shows more emotion over losing his ravens Huginn and Muninn than his kids.
  • His spectral raven spies are actually the souls of children sacrificed by their own parents.
• Coat Cape: He wears a massive overcoat slung around his shoulders as a cape.
• Character Exaggeration: Odin's quest for gaining knowledge and preventing his death in Ragnarök in Norse sources — such as giving up his eye in the well of Mimir in exchange for wisdom and imprisoning Fenrir to prevent the wolf from devouring him in the future as it had been foretold — becomes his main trait and motivation in the series, in which he obsessively pursuits new ways to gain and hold more knowledge about the machinations of the world and his own fate at the cost of causing harm to other people and even himself.
• Consummate Liar: Mimir makes a point of noting Odin's constant duplicity in the first game, but it turns out to be an understatement. Aside from his completely false grandfatherly persona and his impersonation of Tyr, Odin falsifies multiple details of his backstory, his motives, his family and his realm, dismissing Freya's and Mimir's contradictions as sour grapes on their part. Mimir later calls Odin the type of man who compulsively lies about everything, regardless of content, utility, or necessity, as one more way of exerting control on the world around him. It's summed up by Mimir when Odin first meets Kratos and Atreus face to face during the opening of Ragnarök when Mimir says "If he tells you snow is white, he's lying."
  Mimir: One thing to remember about liars, lad—they lie. They do it on principle. No issue too big or too small. They lie about anything they can get away with, and some things that they can't, just to demonstrate their power over reality. You must always bear that in mind.
• Constantly Curious: Background information regarding him treated this in a negative light. Even Mimir himself states Odin is out trying to know everything and what happens next. His curiosity and obsession with knowledge caused thousands of deaths just because he wanted to know everything, which included literally killing himself for it. He even wants to control fate just to avoid Ragnarök before it happens. His final line cements this flaw very well.
  "I have to know what happens next. I'll never stop."
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Zeus in the Greek Era. Zeus is tall, muscular, and hammy. Odin is small, thin, lithely built, and soft-spoken. Zeus wears no shirt and has a long beard and hair. Odin wears far more clothes and keeps his hair and beard short (and he's in fact balding). Zeus is physically abusive to his family, beating Hephaestus and murdering Kratos. Odin is predominantly emotionally abusive. It's implied Zeus was rendered worse by the evils of Pandora's box while Odin was always the way he was. Zeus' general demeanor is royal and grandiose, while Odin's is far more subdued, almost more like the boss of a company. Both are motivated by averting a perceived fate, and both have a penchant for shapeshifting to manipulate others. Zeus is far more willing to throw down, while Odin prefers to have others do the violent work for him (Baldur, Thor and Heimdall). Zeus also is prone to grander displays of his powers: His eyes glow, lightning crackles around him, he'll grow to the size of a giant or speak as a booming voice from the sky. Odin meanwhile tends to rarely play his powers so overtly, mostly limiting himself to summoning and reabsorbing his ravens or using them for teleportation. He also doesn't display any overt sign of magic on his body. Unlike Zeus, who had Undying Loyalty from most of the gods of Olympus, Odin is Hated by All. Finally, both have a Bird Motif, but where Zeus is represented by eagles to symbolize his pride, authority, and titanic power over the Greek realms, Odin is represented by ravels to symbolize his deceitful, manipulative nature and his thirst for knowledge.
• Control Freak: According to Mimir, he collects prophecies and knows the fate of every living being in the Nine Worlds, and if he feels that any of them become a threat to him, he deals with them before it even happens. He murders Thor and Brok the second he loses control of them. And as the game progresses, he shows this was perhaps the greatest reason he is the way he is, even down to his last words: He cannot handle uncertainty. He has to know what happens next.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: His whole demeanor and vernacular, in contrast to Zeus has him come off as less the Top God of the Aesir but more like a greedy businessman or charlatan trying to cut deals and bargains that align solely with his own interests regardless of what damage it does. He even refers to Baldur as his "closer" and says he "had value" as if he were a top earner and salesman rather than his own son.
  Odin: [to the dwarves] Now listen up! It's me, your entire economy, speaking!
• The Corrupter: It becomes increasingly apparent throughout Ragnarök that the worst of the Aesir's behavior and everything else wrong with the realms can ultimately be linked back to Odin and his influence.
• Crazy Enough to Work: His obsession with knowledge made him do unimaginable acts to gain it. He got the name "Lord of the Hanged" because he hung himself from an Yggdrasil branch, pierced himself with a spear and made sure he bled into the Well of Destiny. He did this because he wanted to learn as many secrets as he could from the undead realms and Yggdrasil itself.
  Mimir: Did I mention he was barking mad?
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Self-inflicted. The reason why he's known as "The Lord of the Hanged" because he hanged himself by the neck on an Yggdrasil branch, stabs himself in the side with his own spear and bled into the Well of Destiny to roam the realms of the dead to plunder their secrets. However, the tree caught wind of this and returned him into the land of the living.

D-G

• The Darkness Gazes Back: When he killed Ymir, he saw a universal rift and he's lusted for its answers ever since. According to Odin, there's something in the rift and it looked back at him when he stared into it.
• Darwinist Desire: The way he chooses his potential brides is by two factors; how good a warrior she is, and how strong their children could be. Odin had his eyes on Skadi because she was a brilliant huntress and could teach their sons how to be excellent archers, and he married Freya because of her beauty and warrior spirit.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Disguises himself as the long-deceased Týr to manipulate Atreus and both weaken his resolve to his friends and family as well as weaken his opponents by making them trust in what would have been an "incompetent leader" by design.
  • However, post-game reveals that Odin can only impersonate those who are still alive when it is revealed the real Týr is locked up and still breathing in the remnant of an Aesir prison.
• Deader than Dead: His ultimate fate at the hands of Sindri, the person he most recently wounded with his vile games and machinations after Atreus trapped his soul in a Soul Jar. With it smashed to pieces his soul was utterly obliterated and thus cannot even return as even a spirit like Athena did. Ironically this fate was what motivated his insatiable curiosity with knowing what would become of him after death and desiring to control his fate to avoid it before he was ready only for his actions to guarantee that exact outcome for him. There was possibly a chance for him to have an afterlife or something beyond but his callous murder of Brok and inflicting this fate on him cemented his own oblivion as part of Sindri's revenge.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of The Fatalist. Odin is fixated on his fate in Ragnarok and wants to learn two things from it, how to survive it and what will happen to him if he dies. Odin's denial of personal responsibility is a form of rejecting fate as he believes that everyone is making their own choices, choices that were not caused by fate or by Odin despite Sif and Atreus telling him otherwise. When The Norns reveal to Freya and Kratos that there's no such thing as fate as it's just the consequences of character flaws, it shows that Odin, more or less, unwittingly wrote his own fate by looking for answers that he never would have found in the first place. The Giants' prophecy was never about the end of the realms, it was just about the death of Odin through his own selfishness and lack of self-awareness. His obsession with fate led to Ragnarok, manipulating Baldur to kill Freya and the last Jotunn led to Fimbulwinter, his obsession with control only rallied the realms against him, his genocidal campaign against the Jotnar only led to Atreus learning his own fate and becoming his prophesied killer and his fixation with learning what happens to him after he dies only leads to his soul being bound to a marble that's promptly destroyed by Sindri, thereby condemning him to oblivion and denying him any form of afterlife whatsoever.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Even though it's cowardly and evil Odin's fight to change his fate still fits in with Norse culture. It might be an unwinnable scenario but he isn't going to stand idly by and accept his fate without a fight.
  • In the end he admits he will always want to control fate but is calmly resigned as Atreus seals him in a Soul Jar, no longer fighting it.
• Detrimental Determination: He is incredibly dedicated to defying his fate if dying in Ragnarök and he never shows any signs of giving up. That would be commendable... if it weren't for the fact that his determination plays a factor in his extremely paranoiac nature, alienating everybody in the realms up to and including his own family and committing acts out of fear of being on the short end of the stick. Ultimately this mindset is what furthered Ragnarök in the first place which means Odin dies and Asgard is destroyed largely because of his own neverending pursuit of defying fate.
• Didn't See That Coming: Despite fashioning himself as "all-seeing and all-knowing", there are a few times where Odin is taken off-guard by events that subvert his expectations. Given the type of person he is these events usually drive him into a furious rage before he can gain control of himself, leading him to make some impulsive mistakes.
  • He didn't foresee that Mimir and Týr's Bifrost eyes could be used as focusing crystals to open Realm travel to Jotunheim. Thus, despite having the portion of Týr's mural that contained the secret instructions to finding the Unity Stone needed to restore the realm tower and holding Mimir as a captive for over 109 winters, he was never able to open the way to Jotunheim himself. Furthermore, his pettiness lead him to remove one of Mimir's eyes as payback for his 'Well of Mystical Knowledge' trick, but leave it hidden in Midgard rather than taking it to another realm where it would be more secure, which ultimately enabled Kratos and Atreus to complete their journey thanks to his oversight.
  • He really didn't see that Groa lied to him about what Ragnarök would actually entail, having apparently seen in advance that he was responsible for the death of her husband and how he would kill her after hearing the fake prophecy in full, and using that to misguide him about what precautions to take in advance to avoid Ragnarök, when in fact he was only guaranteeing his end.
  • He didn't expect Sif to arrive after verifying Heimdall's death, intent of taking vengeance out on Atreus for his passing just after Atreus had successfully completed the mask he'd been searching for, nor that his callous attempts to get her to cease would only drive her to convince Thor to attack Atreus in revenge instead, forcing him to flee with the Odin's prize slipping through his grasp.
  • His follow-up attempt to secure the mask as 'Tyr' can be somewhat excused as a quickly-formulated attempt to reclaim both Atreus and the mask after his setback, but he wasn't expecting Brok to have become suspicious of his act, nor to choose that moment to confront him over the inconsistencies he's noticed and prevent him from leading with his prize and knock it out of his hands, leading to him stabbing Brok in a rage and resorting to using Atreus as a hostage to try and secure it once more.
  • He wasn't planning on Thor standing up to him during Ragnarök and refusing to kill for him anymore, leading to him fatally stabbing him in a rage, which shatters Thrud's faith in him.
  • As obsessed with control and knowledge as he is, he couldn't predict Atreus choosing to destroy the mask rather than use it on the rift when the opportunity was right in front of him, pushing him into a final Villainous Breakdown as he laments how everything he's done has been All for Nothing.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: He's killed and devoured by Fenrir during Ragnarok in mythology proper, while in the game Atreus seals his essence within a Soul Jar so he won't hurt anyone else, only for the marble to be destroyed by a vengeful and grief-stricken Sindri. In fact, Odin and Fenrir never once cross paths, even during Ragnarok.
• Dirty Coward: In the end everything he does is to try and prevent Ragnarök. Not for the sake of the realms, the Aesir, or anything else — he just wants to avert his own death. For that no price is too high, and he's even willing to accept the deaths of other Aesir and the destruction of entire realms if it means he gets to live. When Ragnarok is finally brought to Asgard, despite possibly being the most capable individual in his own faction, he hides behind his soldiers, his family and refugees, only engaging when he's burned every bridge and exhausted all other meat shields.
• Does Not Like Spam: Implied with mushrooms which might be tied to the one time he had an embarrassing and intense Mushroom Samba thanks to Mimir's 'Well of Mystical Knowledge' trick leading to his self-inflicted Eye Scream. While escorting Atreus around his home he briefly addresses a cook named Jorgen, telling him he better not be putting mushrooms in the meal.
• Domestic Abuser:
  • He was not a good husband to Freya. At all. Not only is he said to have humiliated her in several ways but he also took away her warrior spirit, making her unable to fight in any circumstances (not even in self-defense), and exiled her, leaving her vulnerable to Baldur's mad rampage. Dialogue with Mimir and Sigrun indicates Odin personally severed Freya's Valkyrie wings before exiling and cursing her which was almost certainly not a pleasant experience for Freya.
  • Freya in Ragnarök confirms that he really turned into this when she wouldn't make him invincible like she did Baldur. Even on their wedding night she claimed he was already convincing her to cut ties with her family and loved ones, saying he'd be all she needed — a textbook abuser tactic to isolate their victim and make them easier to control.
• The Don: His manner of ruling the Nine Realms and controlling the other Aesir has strong shades of a crime lord overseeing his empire. He's got the fast-talking Faux Affably Evil demeanour, the speech patterns and vocabulary, and the flat, nasal accent of a New York mob boss who will imply something bad might happen if you don't follow his orders without making explicit threats, then arrange for your downfall behind your back or send in his subordinates to rough you up. This is most obvious in his first scene where his meeting with Kratos plays out like a mafia meet-and-greet; first he sends in Thor, his pet legbreaker, to make sure things are safe for him and to size up the enemy, then Odin comes in confident and assured, and tells Kratos he owes his family a debt and makes him offers of how he can settle them. Then when Kratos rejects him, Odin calmly steps outside and signals Thor to attack.
• The Dreaded: Everyone in the nine realms who knows Odin’s true nature, even Thor, is terrified of him. The only person who doesn’t appear to fear Odin is Kratos himself.
• Drunk with Power: Wielding the magic of the Vanir led him to experiment further and further with it, and new levels of depravity according to Mimir.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: During his peace-talk with Kratos and Atreus, Odin drinks from the mead mug offered to Kratos as well as the one on Thor's side, primarily as a power move, but also because Thor is actually a recovering alcoholic and won't drink his own cup despite Odin's insistence, forcing him to do it himself.
• Establishing Character Moment: In Ragnarök, we are introduced to him waltzing into Kratos' home like he owns it after Thor asked to be let in to parlay with him. He tries to barter a ceasefire between the two of them, drinking the mead meant for both Thor and Kratos, and remarks that while killing his grandchildren Magni and Móði (who he remarks were "useless" to Thor's face) was in self-defense, killing Baldur (who actually was useful to him as an attack-dog) puts Kratos in his debt. When Kratos refuses, he gives Thor free reign to beat the living hell out of him. If Mimir's stories about him in the previous game didn't do it, then this cements him as a man with an inflated sense of importance, a tyrant to everyone (including his own family) and a massive Hypocrite. The scene gets further recontextualised when Thrud reveals that Thor is actually a recovering alcoholic who's been trying desperately to stay sober for years, and actually refuses to drink his own mead despite his clear temptation, showing how little care Odin has for even his strongest and most loyal son, despite the facade of reasonableness he puts on before Kratos and Atreus.
• Emperor Scientist: He rules the kingdom of Asgard, but hardly spends his time idle on a throne. Rather, he's an active investigator into the answers of the wider world, amassing as much knowledge as he can, especially on the magical side as he does from Freyr.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Deconstructed. He does, on some level, genuinely love his family, but he expresses it in the most possessive, toxic and controlling way possible because of his villainy, and is seemingly caught in a loop of abusing his loved ones, regretting it, but then instantly blaming outside factors and never reflecting on how he hurt them. To put it in perspective, despite being the one to murder Thor, he seems to have a moment of remorse and tries to apologize as his son lays dying, but phrases it as an abuser would ("I didn't want this"), and immediately retaliates without hesitation against Thrúd when she attacks him for killing her father; he also seems to be fond of his two companion ravens, Huginn and Muninn, as he's genuinely upset when Freya and Atreus incapacitate one and kill the other, but this again serves to highlight how much he's dehumanized his family when the ravens matter more to him than their lives. Overall, the only person Odin seems to have ever legitimately cared about was Thor's mother, Fjörgyn, who is long dead by the time of the story.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • If there's one thing he, Freya, and Mimir all agree on, it's that freeing Garm was a terrible mistake.
    "Well... all make mistakes son. But, freeing Garm? That was a big one. Chaos is already spilling out into the other realms."
  • Downplayed, but he recommends to Atreus not to talk to Ingrid, because it's implied that he doesn't like when Thor does it to his hammer. Dialogue with Mimir hints that this is common knowledge, and everybody thinks it's weird.
    Atreus: So... about the sword... is Ingrid the name of the soul inside it? I wonder why I can't hear her...
    Odin: Soul? Who said anything about... look, son, some free advice? You don't want to let anyone catch you talking to your sword. Alright? It's a bad look.
    [several cutscenes later]
    Atreus: Do you ever notice Thor... talk... to his hammer?
    Mimir: Ugh. Still doing that, is he?
    Atreus: Yeah... is he, like, charming the steel or casting a spell or something?
    Mimir: No! Just a weird bloke.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Odin is shocked when Atreus destroys the mask rather than use it; he's so obsessed with learning it makes no sense to him that someone wouldn't want to do the same.
  • As Sindri is getting Draupnir, Odin (as Tyr) tries to dissuade Kratos from killing Heimdall by saying it could lead to war against Asgard. Odin is so objectifying of his own family he can't comprehend that Kratos would kill someone to protect his son and understand why Kratos wouldn't just roll over for what Odin thinks is the greater good.
    Tyr: So now you intend to kill Heimdall? Violence cannot prevent violence. Kratos, I truly thought you understood that.
    Kratos: No matter what you thought I understood... My son is in danger. I will not allow harm to come to him.
    Tyr: Even if it means war?
    Kratos: What do you think?
    Tyr: What's changed in you, Kratos? I thought you didn't believe in fate. We're all worried about your son, but we—
    Freya: Enough. Heimdall's a threat, not only to Atreus but to everyone. He's Odin's left hand, and he carries the horn that begins Ragnarök. If we have the chance to eliminate him we should.
• Evil Counterpart: He's like Kratos in that he's obsessed with a certain goal (in his case knowledge) and like Kratos he's willing to do horrible things to get it. The difference is that Kratos is ultimately willing to change his ways whereas Odin is too arrogant to do so.
• Evil Is Petty: Numerous remarks and actions over the course of both games make it clear Odin has a petty streak wider than all Nine Realms put together, particularly when somebody denies him what he wants.
  • After imprisoning Mimir inside an unbreakable tree and planning to subject him to very creative tortures on a regular basis, Odin went the extra effort to pluck out Mimir's left eye (which would have been on his right side) as both payback and an admission to Mimir that he hadn't actually been fooled by his 'Well of Mystical Knowledge' trick that cost the God his own eye. He then furthermore had the eye hidden deeper within a statue at the bottom on the mountain Mimir was trapped upon, leaving it close to him, but in a location he could never reach himself, rather than keeping the eye on his own person. This ultimately meant that Kratos and Atreus could recover the final key to reaching Jotunheim without much difficulty on their part despite Odin having sealed off access to some realms including Asgard.
  • When Freya finally left him, Odin not only ripped off her wings and cursed her to never directly harm another living thing, thus crippling a proud warrior and Valkyrie queen, but he mystically bound her to Midgard while leaving a window into Vanaheim, allowing Freya to see the home she could never return to. Furthermore, the nucleus for the binding spell was stabilised in Freya's childhood home, meaning the house that symbolised her fondest memories of home became the site that actively prevented her from ever returning there again.
  • He mocks Thor's attempts to become more than a drunken brute and a good father for Thrud's sake. Despite Thor recovering he sends him into Kratos's house with a gift of mead to facilitate peace talks and at several points Thor is visibly tempted to drink the mead but restrains himself. When Odin enters one of the first things he does is push Thor's mead cup closer to him to try and force him to take a drink and when he still refuses takes it himself whilst disparagingly telling Thor that he's "no fun anymore".
  • When Atreus visits Asgard, Odin off-handily chastises one of the Aesir in the great hall that he better not be smelling any mushrooms in the food, implying that Odin is so disgruntled by his embarrassing Mushroom Samba incident with Mimir he actually banned it in Asgard.
  • In posing as "Tyr", Odin portrays him as a weak and ineffectual pacifist, seemingly just as an insult to Týr's desire for peace.
  • Despite being aware that Atreus freed Garm when he told him as Odin, when he meets him again as 'Tyr' he reacts with shock and disapproval at the news, acting horrified at Atreus both to continue the act, but also to make Atreus feel worse about his mistake through the condemnation of a person he looks up to and respected, which additionally also drives him back to the apparently more-understanding Odin.
  • When Brok pokes holes in Odin's portrayal of Týr, Odin quickly loses his temper and stabs the Dwarf to death, screaming "DO YOU NEVER SHUT UP?!", implying that Odin killed Brok less out of fear of discovery, and more because he found Brok's questions annoying.
  • Upon entering the town of Nidavellir, Kratos, Atreus and Mimir are spat on by a dwarf walking on a bridge above them. As confirmed later on by Word of God, that dwarf is actually a disguised Odin.
• Evil Overlord: The general opinion of Odin paints him as a cruel, power-hungry, paranoid tyrant who seems more motivated with gaining power and preserving his domain at all costs, committing crimes against perceived enemies and bringing ruin to the realms. In some ways he might be worse than Zeus and even the other Olympians.
• Eyepatch of Power:
  • His pursuit of knowledge supposedly led him to a tear in reality through which he could glean a near-infinite amount of information; however, in his haste, Odin tried to directly peek through, which cost him his eye. At one point, Odin even lifts the eyepatch to show Atreus that his right eye has been burnt away.
  • Mimir tells a very different tale: he offered Odin a "Well of Mystical Knowledge" that was just water laced with magic mushrooms, and the god tried to rip out his eyes to stop hallucinating. The later confirmation that Odin is a pathological liar, saying anything he can to make himself look good, lends credence to this account — as does the fact that when Odin imprisoned Mimir, the first thing he did was pluck out Mimir's left eye (on what would be Odin's right side) as revenge.
  • To be fair since Týr regenerated the hand he fed to Garm using magic it's possible both are true: Mimir humiliated him with the mushroom incident and he managed to restore his eye with Vanir magic from Freya only to lose it again to an injury done by the rift he can't regenerate from.
• The Faceless: Odin's brief appearance in the Ragnarök trailer has his face entirely covered by shadows.
• False Friend: He encountered Hrungnir the Brawler and invited him to the Aesir court as a gesture of friendship. Odin gave Hrungnir his fill of mead and entertained the court by convincing Hrungnir to boast of his skills as a warrior. Hrungnir drunkenly embarrassed himself for the amusement of the court, hubristically proclaiming that he'd slay the Aesir and take the women to back to Jötunheimr — then Thor showed up. Also plays this to Kratos and Atreus in Ragnarök in two very different ways, Atreus by appealing to the young man's desire to learn his place in the world and Kratos by impersonating Týr.
• Fantastic Racism: Most, if not all Giant and Vanir god deaths can be traced back to him. However, the Giants themselves were on his list from the get-go and he used his son Thor, whose mother was a Giant to carry them out. It's no wonder Thor actually hates committing genocide in his father's name.
• Fatal Flaw: Several lead to his downfall.
  • Inculpability. Odin insists that everything he does is out of necessity, for a greater good, or he had no better choice. He has no capacity to take responsibility for his own actions and will deflect blame onto others or make up some excuse to justify what's happened. It gets to the point of outright self-delusion and believing his own lies. This also ties strongly into his fatalism and firm belief in prophecy, either he'll say he's doing things because they're in-line when what's destined to happen or else he's doing things to try and defy what's prophecied to happen, once again blaming outside forces for his own choices and actions. Such behavior bites him hard when Atreus shatters the Mask, triggering a Villainous Breakdown because Odin's obsession with it was All for Nothing.
  • Curiosity and a need for control. He is obsessed with knowing "what comes next" and will do anything for knowledge. There are countless stories of Odin doing something insane, cruel, or petty, in the name of learning more about the world, up to and including commiting suicide to enter the realm of the dead and learn their secrets. His thirst for knowledge is also in large part due to his knowledge of the prophecy of Ragnarök, he thinks the nine realms will be destroyed and he'll be killed in a cataclysmic battle. Thus he'll seize upon any scrap of knowledge that might give him an idea of how to stop Ragnarök and has become a tyrant oppressing the nine realms in the name of stamping out potential threats before they can rise against him. In the end he admits this is his flaw — and moreover that he will never change, saying to Atreus' face that he has to know what it is comes next, giving the young boy no choice but to reluctantly rip out his essence and seal him away to stop his plans hurting anybody else.
  • Paranoia and selfishness. Odin trusts no one and will lash out the second he thinks they might turn against him, but it's exaggerated to the point that he considers anything other than blind loyalty to be a sign of untrustworthiness. His tendency to pull You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on anyone he thinks isn't on his side means that almost no one is willing to trust him, and those that do are either ignorant of his treachery or have been manipulated or intimidated into obedience. For the same reason he keeps things close to the vest and is reluctant to let people in on his plans, and will only share the bare minimum he has to in order to convince them to help him. Acting so mysteriously feeds back into the perception that he's a manipulative liar who can't be trusted and makes it hard for him to form genuine alliances. Throughout Ragnarök, others discuss how they have no idea what Odin is planning, and he doesn't care to try and explain it to them because they don't need to know and he doesn't trust them with that knowledge; the only person he ever genuinely opens up to for a few minutes is Atreus, and only because Atreus refuses to help him unless he does. This inability to trust others means his masquerade as Tyr is doomed to failure, because despite being in a perfect position to manipulate his enemies and allies into doing what he wants, he either can't or won't nudge them along as effectively as he could, because that would mean others would know what it is he wants and he isn't capable of that level of trust.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • According to Mimir he can be charming when he wants to be and managed to convince Freya he had changed for the better and truly wanted peace... for a while. Ragnarök shows Mimir was entirely serious; when first met by Kratos, he arrives in peace and claiming he doesn't want a fight, showing a nebbish, polite personality... and then he passively-aggressively threatens Atreus and Mimir and starts picking at Kratos' insecurities, all while maintaining his apparent politeness. When Kratos turns him down, he lets Thor kick him around. One can also contrast how he talks to people versus how he talks about those same people when they're not around.
  • Atreus's stay in Asgard has Odin at his most personable, showing a more philosophical, scholarly dimension to his personality, and he seems incredibly eager to teach and help Atreus, because ultimately they're both looking for the same answers. Nearly every single thing he says is a lie or half-truth to manipulate the boy, tempting him with the secrets of creation, while at the same time guiding him away from Kratos as Tyr, and it's this display of duplicity that ultimately causes Atreus to forsake the mask and the answers it may have given.
  • Even as he tries to be polite and sociable he has a habit to needle people's buttons, even when it's not in his interest to do so. He constantly makes references to what Kratos did in Greece, which he constantly then apologizes for. He remarks to Freya how he'd had forgotten how beautiful she was with wings, yet he's the one who had taken them away from her, and she's got an almost literal noose to his neck.
• Feathered Fiend:
  • He possesses two large ravens, Huginn and Muninn, that can fly between realms; not only do they act as his chief information gatherers, whispering the secrets they've learned, but he also uses them to transport himself and other willing individuals from place to place. While masquerading as Tyr, Odin hides Muninn in Brok and Sindri's house as a backdoor for when he needs to return quickly. During the final fight, Atreus shoots down one and Freya breaks the neck of the other, robbing Odin of his last allies, though Huginn is shown to be somehow still alive in the aftermath.
  • Subverted with his spectral ravens — they look much larger than normal birds and serve to spy on the Nine Worlds' inhabitants, but they are otherwise passive creatures that never attack the protagonists. The "Eyes of Odin" favor in Ragnarök reveals that they are the souls of mortal children sacrificed in Odin's name, and that their adoptive mother, the Raven Keeper, has enslaved them to act in his service.
• Foil: To Kratos, when it comes to parenting. Kratos praises Atreus' skills and compassion, and encourages him to be the best version of himself, whereas Odin constantly insults and belittles Thor, believing that killing's the only thing he's good at. Atreus defied Kratos several times, yet Kratos never retaliated, whereas the first time Thor said no to Odin, Odin pierced his neck with his spear for it.
  • Odin tries to make his family - and everyone else - dependent upon him, and does his best to destroy or neutralize anything and anyone he can't control. He's also very selfish. By contrast, Kratos lives primarily to benefit Atreus and others, trusts in Atreus' wishes without agreeing, would much rather take a backseat than a general's role, and trains Atreus to live without him, just in case. However, Kratos does get understandably upset when Atreus vanishes for two days, and begs Atreus for the truth. He still manages not to be more violent than grabbing Atreus' arm.
  • Kratos is extremely blunt and honest. Odin is a compulsive liar and manipulator.
  • Kratos is ashamed of his violent past and reputation, especially around Atreus. Odin is proud of his, because he's sure it's for the greater good. He still puts up the facade of a kindly, peppery old man, to charm Atreus.
  • Kratos is a loner, while Odin surrounds himself with a whole community.
  • Kratos is mainly a physical fighter, with some access to magic. Odin is more of a commander, but when he does personally uncork the magic bottle, look out. Both use spears as distinctive items in this game, and for irony points, Kratos' spear was made out of a gift originally meant for Odin.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: His fear of Ragnarök and misguided obsession with controlling everything for the greater good is framed tragically, and it explains his actions. However, this does nothing to justify or excuse any of the evil actions he chose to commit, and it's furthermore shown that he brought all his suffering upon himself. Atreus says as much after Odin is defeated as the Final Boss in Ragnarök, saying that Odin just really wanted control at the end of the day, and was willing to do whatever it took towards that goal. Even as much as Odin insists none of it was his fault Atreus says it was always about Odin's obsessions and he could have stopped any time he wanted.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: Branching off of his need for control Odin tends to quickly lose his temper and resort to lethal violence the instant things don't go the way he expects them to. He killed Groa when she refused to elaborate on her prophecy of Ragnarök, thereby inadvertently playing into her hands as she had lied about the details. Odin's disguise as Tyr completely falls apart upon him fatally stabbing Brok for Spotting the Thread and not only does it cost him a chance to steal the mask from Atreus but Brok's death is the final straw for everyone else to commit themselves to Ragnarök. And finally, him killing Thor who refused his orders costs Odin his strongest fighter as well as Thrúd when she tries to attack him and he sends her flying, leaving him with no allies against Kratos, Atreus and Freya.
• The Ghost: In God of War 4 he is referred to but never appears. His agents and spies can be encountered throughout the game though.
• God Is Evil: Just like Zeus, Odin is the Top God of Norse mythology and a seriously deplorable person who is willing to even commit genocide to prevent anyone from threatening his power and an Abusive Parent. And unlike Zeus who at least ended up being infected by Pandora's Box, Odin is evil of his own free will.
• Greater-Scope Villain: For God of War (PS4), as he opposes Kratos' presence and sends his minions to dispatch him, but he is never actually confronted or seen in the game; instead it's Baldur who antagonizes the leads directly. Within Ragnarök he still maintains this role despite being an actual physical threat in the game as nearly everything wrong with the Norse pantheon and by extension the nine realms can be traced back to him.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The director, Eric Williams, compares Odin to Antonio Salieri from Amadeus. Williams says Odin is actually jealous of Atreus's natural abilities because Odin works hard for what he wants whereas Atreus just has a natural talent that outshines him. The main example is that Atreus was able to translate an ancient language after speaking one word of it, something that took Odin years to do on his own. He respects Atreus for having this ability but at the same time resents him for being better.
• Gruesome Grandparent: He shows no compunction blasting his granddaughter Thrúd away. Dialogue from Heimdall and Sif seem to indicate he wouldn't have even let her become a valkyrie like she desperately wanted to (though this is debatable considering Sif's protectiveness). He also calls his grandsons Magni and Modi "useless" right in front of their father, showing Odin didn't think too highly of them and doesn't really care they're dead.

H-M

• Hard Work Hardly Works: He relentlessly studied an ancient wooden mask that would allow him to see into a universal rift for years only for Atreus to do it in mere minutes by reading one word on it.
• Hated by All: You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who likes him; Týr and Mimir hate him for slaughtering the giants and punishing them out of paranoia, Freya hates him for ruining her life and corrupting her son and the nine realms hate him for letting their worlds fall into ruin. Ragnarök takes this further to where even his own family, save Thor who's willingly clueless about his nature despises the man to their cores and only begrudgingly tolerate him because he's the Norse Top God after all.
• Hate Sink: Under all the grandiose titles, fearsome presence and yes, even the charismatic affability as head of the Aesir, Odin is little more than a spiteful, controlling, greedy and pathetic excuse of a living being. He habitually abuses his own family, refuses to own up to his atrocities, murdered Brok and eventually his own son in fits of petulant rage and fucked over millions because he was terrified of facing the music for his depravity. It’s hard not to take some degree of schadenfreude in watching everything he built and worked towards crumble as Kratos, Atreus and Freya kick his shit in during Ragnarök.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Why does he antagonize Kratos? No one knows, not even Mimir, the smartest man alive. However, it is known that Odin seeks above all to prevent Ragnarök and considering Kratos' son is destined to trigger it, he might have foreseen it. In Ragnarok, it's revealed his main objective is to obtain more knowledge than anyone else, particularly about what happens to him and the gods upon death. A mysterious green rift and a mask related to it are the most likely key to figuring this all out. To this end, he employed Atreus and his astronomical linguistic skills to translate the runes on the Mask to complete it and hopefully peer inside..
• Hidden Depths: He's actually quite skilled in cooking if his disguise as Tyr is any indication. Atreus (of course not knowing who he actually was) mentions how good it was in a conversation between him, Kratos and Mimir; which is probably why he can tell right away when someone is cooking mushrooms just from the smell. He also has a fondness for philosophy and introspection.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Both literally and metaphorically
  • In the Jotnar prophecy Tyr is said to lead an army that would bring Ragnarok to Asgard. Odin disguises himself as Tyr in an attempt to deter and demoralize the enemy into not seeking war. Only for his murder of Brok to finally push Kratos and Atreus into fighting back and bringing Ragnarok to Asgard.
  • His goal to unlock the secrets of the rift actually didn't require any evil acts at all, just being nice to Atreus. But because he just had to be a manipulative dick (both in general and in that specific context) Atreus ultimately decides not to help him and destroys the mask.
  • A lot of Odin's problems were caused by his inability to accept his own fate and not dwell on what happens to him after death. By murdering Brok and inadvertently denying him an afterlife Sindri destroys Odin's soul out of vengeance and prevents him from achieving any afterlife at all. If Odin had a better relationship with the nine realms he could've had the answers he was looking for and would've never needed to manipulate Atreus into rebuilding and translating the mask. Instead his lust for knowledge and overwhelming desire for answers severed all the help he needed and created an army against him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Downplayed. Near the ending of the story Odin has Kratos and Atreus bound and cornered but is subsequently taken off guard when Freya enters the fight, entangling Odin with the magic imbued into the noose he used to hang himself from Yggdrasil. However, he's able to muster enough magic to break free when Freya tries to strangle him with it.
  • Played straight at the end. Earlier, Odin confides in Atreus that his biggest fear is nothing awaits him after death. By losing his cool later on and senselessly murdering Brok, Odin seals his fate. Had he not done this, Sindri wouldn't have been inspired to exact vengeance upon Odin's Soul Jar and destroy it. Atreus was perfectly content to keep Odin's soul alive within the Giant orb, giving him some semblance of an afterlife and the chance to possibly even escape one day. But with Sindri's retribution carried out, Odin unwittingly made his worst fear become a reality.
  • He opens the game trying to convince Kratos to a truce. Not wanting the famous god killer to come after him. While Kratos never agrees he does spend most of the game opposed to starting Ragnarok or leading armies against Asgard. Odin posing as Tyr knows all this. Ultimately Odin killing Brok drives Kratos to start Ragnarok and agree to be the general of Freya's armies, precisely what Odin sought to avoid.
• Humiliation Conga: Regarding the Mask, of which its completion is what he currently most covets. He has spent decades studying it, only for Atreus to show he can understand it within seconds, which is a serious blow to his ego. Then, when it's finally complete, he ends up losing it three times over, with each time being closer than he ever had to the rift's answers; Atreus teleports away once it's completed, Kratos snags it with his Spear when Odin is seconds from teleporting back to Asgard and the Rift, and finally Atreus breaks it, sealing up the nearby Rift and definitively denying Odin his answers.
  • And of course all this is alongside his most capable agents getting taken out, the Nine Realms slowly but surely rising up against him and Ragnarok being unleashed upon Asgard which he is powerless to stop, mainly thanks to, of all things a foreign god.
• Hypocrite:
  • He truly does want to avert Ragnarök. But in the name of preventing a catalysmic war, he's perfectly willing to instigate multiple, smaller-scale wars to eliminate potential enemies that might fight against him in the big one. This not only flies in the face of his insistence he wants peace, but being a tyrant who commits genocide without provocation is one of the reasons others want to go to war with him. This continues during Ragnarök; he says he wants peace as much as Kratos while antagonizing him and giving him plenty of reasons to want to kill Odin.
  • He talks about bygones and leaving the past behind such as forgiving Kratos' murders of Modi, Magni and Baldur. Yet he has no problem bringing up Kratos' Dark and Troubled Past to taunt and annoy him.
  • He accuses Kratos of still being The Berserker who kills without cause and only fights for himself, while Odin has committed innumerable self-serving atrocities equivacable to Kratos' own if not worse.
  • In Ragnarök he tells Atreus "another servant is the last thing I need. I need someone with drive, with curiosity, someone who'll take initiative." The reason he needs someone like this is that he's tried to browbeat most of the other Aesir into being blindly loyal Yes Men who only do what he says and reprimands them when they speak against him, ignorant that any of them can be something other than what he's convinced they should be.
  • He claims to not care about wealth or power, yet Asgard is the most luxurious and wealthy of the nine realms (which Odin flaunts to During, even) and he is the Top God of his pantheon who rules with an iron fist.
  • He claims that "dying is what we Aesir live for" but he is a Dirty Coward who tries to defy his fate even if it means sacrificing everyone else so he can live.
• I Don't Pay You to Think: When Thor refuses to kill Kratos and thereby defies Odin for the first time Odin yells at him to do what he tells him and condescendingly calls his son broken.
• I Know You Know I Know: Odin plays this during the discussions in Kratos' house by specifically asking Atreus to stop looking for Týr as part of his peace negotiations. Kratos and Atreus then go after Týr because of how much Odin didn't want them to do so since it implies Týr is alive. This of course plays into Odin's hand since it allows him to pose as Tyr and influence the pair's decision-making once they "free" him.
• Immortals Fear Death: The crux of Odin’s villainy. In what is possibly his one moment of honesty in the game he confesses to Atreus that he’s terrified of the possibility there’s nothing waiting on the other side and his atrocities were done in an ultimately fruitless attempt to find out what precisely happens to him after he dies or to delay that death.
  Odin: You see, son... I don't know where I go, when I go. There's no Valhalla for me. Ragnarök cannot be the end. I need to know there's something more than this. I need to know what happens to me. And that's the truth, I swear on my last good eye. That's the truth.
• Immortality Seeker: His ultimate goal. Mortals have a couple possible afterlifes that they go to upon dying. As far as Odin is aware, gods do not. This scares him to the point that he's committed many evils to avoid it. His relationship with Freya disintegrated when Freya refused to teach him the spell she cast on Baldur, seeing how it drove him insane. And his ultimate goal involves a tear in reality that apparently leads to Creation itself, which Odin believes contains all the knowledge there is, which would let him know exactly what happens to a god after they die.
• Implausible Deniability: When Thrúd actually sees Odin murder Thor in a fit of rage, Odin tries to shift the blame to Kratos. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work, and Odin has to resort to force to remove Thrúd from the field.
• Informed Flaw: Despite Mimir labelling him as a paranoid god who will eliminate any threat to his power in 2018, Odin in Ragnarok generally ignores massive threats to his reign, like Surtr and Gjallarhorn, and only moves against Kratos, Atreus, and Freya when they interfere with his quest for the mask. Either he changed his focus in the past century or Mimir is more biased than he cares to admit after his tortures.
• Ink-Suit Actor: When he finally makes an appearance in Ragnarök, he resembles his actor Richard Schiff, only missing an eye.
• Insistent Appellation: Odin continuously addresses Atreus as "Loki", since ultimately Odin only sees him as the figure from Jotnar prophecy and as the instrument to obtain infinite knowledge. Odin continuing to do this while disguised as Týr, in spite of the fact that he should know that's not his real name, is one of the clues that tips off Brok that something isn't quite right about "Tyr".
• Interface Spoiler: The fact that he's impersonating Týr is foreshadowed from the moment he talks as long as you have subtitles turned on. Whenever the disguised Odin speaks, under the subtitles his listed name is misspelled as "Tyr"; noticeably missing the accent over the "y". Once the real deal is freed by Kratos his subtitles correctly list his speaking name as "Týr".
• I Never Said It Was Poison:
  • It goes unremarked on because everyone in the scene has more pressing concerns, but after Kratos shows him Gjallarhorn (proving that Kratos killed Heimdall), Tyr says that Odin promised peace as long as Kratos didn't kill any Aesir. Tyr wasn't there when Odin proposed that deal, and he never had the opportunity to learn what it was since Kratos and Atreus didn't talk about it. So, how'd he know the specifics of Odin's proposal?
  • Without the disguise, Odin also gives himself away in a very quick way. When Kratos and Brok make the Draupnir Spear, Odin identifies Brok as the creator despite Brok finding his own way home at that point and not being with Kratos during the talk with Odin.
• Ironic Name: More like "ironic title"; for his reputation as the All-Father he acts nothing like a father, seeing his children as tools to his plans of controlling the nine realms rather than people he genuinely cares for.
• Irony: Both games in the Norse duology showcase that Odin's primary character traits are his lying and manipulative nature almost to the point of compulsion out of a desire to enact control over the world around him, manipulate others, further his own goals, deny responsibility for his wrongdoings and lie to himself. Yet despite all this his last words to Atreus and what causes his ultimate death are him rebuking Atreus's pleas to stop his quest for knowledge and being completely honest in admitting he will always want to know what happens next when lying about it would have actually saved his life.
• It's All About Me: He cares about one thing and one thing only: making sure his control over the realms is never broken. As such he has gone to extreme lengths to prevent Ragnarök or at least change it to make sure it's in his favor. To paraphrase Mimir it doesn't matter how he found out, what matters is that he's right.
• I've Come Too Far: His final dialogue with Atreus implies two things: one, he knows on some level there's no coming back from the awful things he's done; two, he knows himself well enough he couldn't bring himself to stop hunting for answers even if he tried.
• Jerkass: Odin has a habit of casually and covertly insulting people and “accidentally” pushing their buttons. His very first scene has him calling Magni and Modi useless in front of Thor and then insult Thor for being a recovering alcoholic.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Basically his character in Ragnarök. While he's a terrible parent and rude his interactions with Atreus in particular seem to paint him as a flawed but ultimately well-meaning man struggling to do his best as the ultimate authority of the Nine Realms. Then it turns out this was all an act to manipulate Atreus and he really is just a selfish tyrant who is needlessly cruel to others because he thinks he can get away with it.
• Lack of Empathy: Has no feelings for his son Baldur as he saw him as a tool and even killed his other son Thor without any hesitation. Given his sadistic tendencies he even had personal pleasure in seeing his enemies suffer without any care for their struggles or feelings.
• Karmic Death: Killed Brok and made the lives of Freya, Kratos and Atreus miserable. The latter three brutally lay the smackdown on him, Atreus transfers his essence to an orb and Sindri smashes it in revenge for his brother's death. This is even more poignant because Odin killing Brok — who had a fractured soul lacking its fylgia — caused the dwarf's soul to cease to exist due to no longer being able to find its way to any realm of the dead it's only fitting the one so obsessed with lasting forever in supreme omnipotence suffers a similar oblivion at the hands of said dwarf's brother.
• Kick the Dog:
  • On top of his abuse of Thor, Odin repeatedly tries to bully him into drinking alcohol which is humiliating because he gave up alcohol for the sake of his wife Sif and daughter Thrud after his drinking caused the death of Modi. Odin only wants Thor to drink alcohol again because it makes him easier to control, not because Thor was fun.
  • One of the collectables in Vanaheim is a family crest gifted to him by the Vanir to mark his marriage to Freya, which he threw away as soon as he was out of public eye.
• Life's Work Ruined: In the end the void he was so devoted to get infinite knowledge from closes on him thanks to Atreus breaking the mask. Centuries of abuse, tyranny and murder just for answers were All for Nothing. His Final Boss fight comes off as less than a Last Villain Stand and more akin to him lashing out in anger over having no idea what to do next after centuries of planning, merely trying to take Atreus specifically down with him when his end comes.
• Lovecraft Lite: Implied. Odin's drive is that when he killed Ymir a rift between realities was made; when he gazed into it something gazed back at him. To Odin this is confirmation there's something beyond realities and he needs to know what it is before he's killed in Ragnarok because he's got no idea what happens to him after he dies.
• Mad God: Explicitly described as such by Mimir. He may not appear to be this when first meeting Kratos and Atreus but as events leading up to Asgard's foretold destruction unravel we get front row seats to witnessing the truest depths of his inner madness.
• The Magnificent: He's been called "Allfather", "Lord of the Hanged" and "Raven King".
• Manipulative Bastard: Stories told by Mimir have him tricking others for his own benefit. This is somewhat in line with his original portrayal in Norse legends where he could even give Loki a run for his money. So pervasive is this reputation that Mimir's first words about him in Ragnarök are "If he tells you snow is white, he's lying". Normally an absurd statement but given Odin compulsively lies for his own benefit, deceit and power over subjective reality the metaphor means it's more believable for snow to suddenly not be white than Odin to be genuinely telling the truth with no strings attached.
  • In fact he's so good that he manages to get Atreus to play right into his hands despite being aware Odin isn't trustworthy and having Mimir and Freya as living examples of how Odin operates. Atreus still falls for the exact same trap and is only snapped out of it when Odin kills Brok.
• Mask of Sanity: He's really good at looking like a nebbish scholar who doesn't want any trouble but if you pull the threads hard enough he'll snap and reveal himself to be a violent narcissist obsessed with using secrets to control the world around him.
• Master Actor: His impersonation of Tyr was near-flawless, with people who know Odin: Mimir and Freya, have no inkling to his real identity despite knowing him personally and Kratos, who easily harbors mistrust towards others getting fooled. He did this by playing up the real Týr's pacifistic nature and painting him as a coward, disguising it as trauma to fool the others. He only was busted due to his own impatience: his pressing of Atreus relating to his true identity and his insistence to get the mask tipped off Brok, leading to his unmasking.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Implied to be the root cause of Odin's contempt for Thor beyond being his Living Weapon.
• Mundanger: Ultimately, it's not his treasure trove of knowledge and magical prowess that makes Odin such an effective antagonist; in a mythology teeming with gods and monsters and myth, he's just a scheming, lying, power-hungry sociopath who can trick you into being his friend.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Much like Baldur before him Odin's skinny appearance is very deceiving. He looks like nothing but a frail old man with a voice to match yet as soon as he steps on the battlefield he quickly proves to all why he's the most feared and powerful of the Norse gods. With Kratos having been spent from his relentless fighting in Ragnarök and subsequent narrow victory over Thor it takes him working together with Atreus and Freya, two other gods to finally bring him down for good. He's also able to effortlessly lift Mjolnir like his massively built son.
• Mushroom Samba: To be granted the position of his advisor Mimir told Odin of a Well of Knowledge, something he knew the All-Father coveted above all else. What he didn't know was that Mimir just found an ordinary well and laced its water with enough hallucinogenic mushrooms to make even gods see visions. Whatever he saw after drinking from it made him so crazy that he nearly tore his own eyes out. Mimir managed to break him out of his drug induced state and convinced him that it was a sacrifice he paid for the "knowledge". Odin made him his advisor soon after. He thought Odin never caught on until the day he took his left eye. This incident seems to have left a sour note for Odin as he tells a chef not to add mushrooms to a soup in Ragnarök.

N-S

• Narcissist: Odin only has concern for taking control of the nine realms and will do anything to stay in power. His obsession of wanting to know the secrets of all creation means that he just wants to control all of life in his own image and will kill anyone including his own family just to achieve it.
• Never My Fault: He never takes responsibility for the terrible things he does, always blaming everyone but himself for what happens. At best, Odin can insist he was forced to do something horrible by extenuating circumstances, but this still shifts the blame off of him and onto someone else. His obsession with fate, prophecy, and control is hinted to be rooted in his refusal to accept blame; he desires control because he believes it will let him make everything better, but paradoxically has to believe things like Ragnarök is "destined" to happen because otherwise he has no excuse for his actions. Highlighted in the finale, when he kills Thor in a fit of rage, then instantly regrets it and starts insisting that he "didn't want this", followed by accusing Kratos and Atreus of "turning [Thor] against me".
  • It's worth noting they did turn Thor against Odin... by being nice to him. Odin even claimed being a jerk was the only way to work with him but Atreus, Kratos, Sif and Thrud all prove Odin blatantly wrong and convince Thor to stand up for himself. Abuse is the only way Odin can control Thor but he doesn't actually know the difference.
  • In the Valhalla DLC, Tyr notes that Odin had attempted the trials of Valhalla himself but since the trials are meant to cause you to look inward to resolve your personal issues Odin wasn't able to get anything out of them.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Many of Odin's treacherous and self-serving actions have only served to hasten the coming of Ragnarök, not prolong it.
  • Groa's prophecy to Odin relied on this trope: by telling him that Ragnarok would destroy all the realms (rather than just Asgard as she actually saw), Odin seals his own fate by bullying, enslaving or outright eradicating many races and peoples across the Nine Realms, since he has no reason to ally with them for his own preservation. This of course gives everyone strong reasons to hate him and fulfill Groa's prophecy.
  • His bloody-minded obsession with waging war on the Jötnar, dwarves, and anyone else he's deemed necessary, for no other reason than dominance over the realms and their magic, has robbed him of useful allies in the fight to come; in particular, he's already made an enemy of Surtr — the giant destined to destroy Asgard at the cost of his own life — with his extermination of the Jötnar, when it could've been useful to try diplomacy in the hope of mutual survival. Using his son Baldur and grandsons Magni and Modi just to hunt down the husband and son of Laufey, a former Jötunn spy, earned him the enmity of Kratos and caused the deaths of all three of his kin.
  • He raised Sköll and Hati in Asgard as hostages to keep their father, the great wolf Hróðvitnir, from attacking, and set them into the sky to chase the moon and sun. Atreus is confused why he would do such a thing if he knew they're part of the prophecy, and Mimir replies that it's a matter of control: having power over the wolves gives him a chance to delay the inevitable, even though he's helped fulfill it.
  • Imprisoning the Valkyries in corporeal forms on Midgard was meant to be a pre-emptive tactic in case they revolted over him cursing their Queen. Instead, he's deprived himself of much-needed warriors for his Einherjar in Valhalla, letting them turn into rotting Draugr that now swarm Midgard, while Hel-Walkers escape unguarded and overflowing Helheim to infest the realm of the living. But as it turns out in Ragnarok, replacing the questionably loyal Valkyries with Valkyries loyal to him has allowed the Einherjar to be released on the Nine Realms before Ragnarok itself arrives, bolstering his forces.
  • Cursing Freya to a life as a peaceful outcast in the woods only gave Kratos and Atreus the means to continue their journey.
  • Odin makes one mistake when he tries to convince Kratos to his accept his peace offers at the beginning of the game: he offers to settle Kratos' debt with his ex-wife Freya. Odin doesn't understand that Kratos still feels Freya is a friend and wishes her no harm, and it's stated in the journal that effectively allying himself with Freya's hated ex-husband is the reason why Kratos rejected the deal for how incredibly BAD of an idea that is. This forces Odin to go with a backup plan; had he left Freya out of the deal Kratos may have accepted it and the entire plot wouldn't have happened.
  • His history of genocidal actions and abuse of Thor ultimately torpedo the closest shot he has at victory late during Ragnarok. Just as he has the mask completed and is on the verge of taking a willing Atreus to the rift to get the answers he seeks, Sif interrupts him in order to arrest Atreus for the murder of her sons (which he wouldn't have had to do if Odin hadn't sicced them on him in the first place). Right as Odin is trying to get her to back down, she then goes to Thor and successfully convinces him to turn on Atreus, forcing him to escape along with Odin's mask.
  • Through his posing as Tyr and his skills at manipulation, Odin makes one last attempt at retaking possession of the mask, but his pushing too hard too fast to get the party to Asgard and his consistently calling Atreus "Loki" raises enough red flags for Brok to call him out. He then impulsively stabs Brok in anger, revealing his disguise before he can escape, and permanently destroys all the goodwill he built with Atreus by holding him at knifepoint. He even fails to get the mask when Kratos stabs it to the wall with a last second spear toss. His murder of Brok is also what ultimately convinced Kratos to actively start Ragnarök in order to avenge his death.
  • His duplicitous, two-faced nature is what ultimately robs him of the answers he seeks. After the second phase of the Final Boss fight, he and Atreus crash into his study, where the rift is. He immediately tries to call off the fight and makes one last plea to Atreus's curiosity to get him to put on the mask. At this point, even Kratos doesn't try to talk Atreus out of it and says he can make whatever decision he wants. But thanks to the reprehensible lengths Odin has gone to in his search for the secrets of creation Atreus has no further interest in listening to him and breaks the mask apart.
• No Body Left Behind: Double Subverted. He does leave a physical shell behind when Atreus rips out his soul but it's afterwards atomised by Surtr destroying Asgard leaving no trace of him behind.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Odin shares a lot of similarities to Ivan the Terrible.
  • While impersonating Tyr, Atreus gives him a spear under the belief that he'll want to fight and/or defend himself but Odin instead refers to it as a walking stick and turns it down. Considering Odin's paranoia and this comment, this might be a subtle reference to Ivan the Terrible, who was so paranoid of being attacked that he used a spear as a walking stick and executed his councilors under the belief that they were plotting to kill him. Something Odin also did by imprisoning Tyr and by binding Mimir to a tree and torturing him for 109 winters for disloyalty.
  • In a disputed story, Ivan the Terrible killed his son, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, in a fit of anger with his spear during a confrontation over the latter's wife and he immediately regretted killing his son. In the game, Odin kills Thor in a fit of anger and paranoia after Thor refuses to kill Kratos during Ragnarok, with his tone of voice implying that he immediately laments his decision and is only justifying Thor's death to himself.
  • Odin believed Sif was causing Thor to question his loyalty to him and his suspicions were confirmed when Thor said that she was right about him. The argument that caused Ivan Ivanovich's death was over Ivanovich's wife as Ivan the Terrible caused her to suffer a miscarriage by attacking her for dressing immodestly. Ivanovich confronted him over this and was subsequently killed by his own father.
  • Ivan the Terrible was also famous for attacking Novgorod under the paranoid belief that the high court of Novgorod were traitors and ordered his secret police to torture and execute everyone within the city. In the game, Odin believed the Jotnar were a threat to his rule and ordered Thor and the other Aesir to kill every last one of them so they can prevent or delay his fate in Ragnarok.
  • Finally, Odin's design actually appears to resemble Mikhail Gerasimov's forensic facial reconstruction of Ivan IV as both are shown to have receding hair and a medium-length beard.
• Not Good with Rejection:
  • He orchestrated Skadi's patricide because she rejected his advances causing Skadi to commit suicide out of shame and grief.
  • When Freya had enough of him and left just being married to Odin made her a pariah among the Vanir forcing her to flee to Midgard instead. Odin, in his spite and cruelty removed her Valkyrie wings and cursed her to never harm a living creature so she would have to eke out an eternity alone and purposeless, hiding for her own safety.
  • Thor ultimately defying him after seeing Odin for what he really is also ends up being the last time with how badly Odin takes his son rejecting him.
• Not Me This Time:
  • It's stated the start of the Aesir-Vanir war was caused by Freyr being tied up and burned by the Aesir when he tried to teach them magic to improve their crop yields. It's easy to assume this was done under Odin's orders given his track record - but according to Mimir, Odin saw the value in more than improving Asgard's crop productions and was actually interested in keeping Freyr around. It was a group of lesser Aesir that attacked when they failed to grasp the intricate subtleties of Vanir magic and blamed their teacher.
  • Mimir also states he doesn't think Odin was behind the death of Thor's mother since he truly loved her and "was never the same" after her death. It's later implied she died giving birth to Thor.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to prevent Ragnarök which is a reasonable goal in itself but the only reason he wants to do so is because he doesn't want to die in the prophesied battle. To that end he's willing to engage in the slaughter of entire races and realms to remove those that may stand against him.
• Not Worth Killing: With Odin's soul literally in the palms of their hands Atreus, Kratos and even Freya find they just don't want anything to do with him anymore. Sindri however, has no problem smashing it and condemning Odin to oblivion the way Brok had been.
• Obliviously Evil: Deconstructed. Odin lives in such paranoia and denial about the consequences of his actions that he never takes personal fault for his failings, and does not see anything he's done as evil, no matter how horrific, because he lives in the delusion that everything he's ever done is necessary. The nature of this is ultimately what makes Odin so dangerous since he will stop at nothing to achieve what he believes is best for everyone's interests, even though it's really for himself. Whether describing his murder of Ymir as a difficult choice meant to help everyone when he did it as a grab for power or killing Thor for not wanting to be a weapon anymore but explaining it as a betrayal and blaming both Kratos and Atreus for his death, Odin seems honestly none the wiser for his actions. It's only after the Final Boss fight that Odin finally admits his faults but chooses not to change anyway.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: He does not have a good relationship with his daughter-in-law Sif, badmouthing her to Thor and suggesting she's poisoning his mind (as in trying to get him to think for himself instead of mindlessly obeying Odin). He also doesn't think highly of his ex-brother-in-law Freyr, considering him inept (there's no love lost on Freyr's end either as he hates Odin).
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Deconstructed. Odin is aware of Kratos's situation and gives him a way out on a silver platter; unfortunately his smug, casually flippant attitude regarding it sours any working functional relationship the Bane of Olympus would’ve had with him. Even if he’d used the correct choice of words towards the end Kratos might not have accepted any offer from someone he knew for a fact to be utterly despicable.
• Old Master: Despite his thin and elderly appearance he's the Top God of the Norse pantheon for a reason (though his strength comes more through magic than brawn). It ultimately takes Kratos, Atreus and Freya working together to bring him down.
• Offing the Offspring: Kills Thor when he no longer wants to fight Kratos.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Outlives his son Thor and his grandsons Magni and Mod. Then again, he was the CAUSE for their deaths, whether directly or indirectly.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • As much as Odin's paranoid behavior demands him to know anything and everything and do so by any means necessary, whatever he saw after hanging himself to death above the Norns' lake shook him enough to never consider attempting it again once he was brought Back from the Dead and cast the place from his memory.
  • Also, when he's talking to Atreus about the rift he seems to be genuinely honest when he says he's scared of what may be waiting for him after he dies, and that wanting to know what's coming for him is why he's so hungry for knowledge.
• Out-of-Character Alert: While impersonating Tyr he refers to Freya as "Frigg" the first time they meet; a name Odin almost exclusively uses when referring to his ex-wife. Him repeatedly referring to Atreus as "Loki" and his insistence on treating Atreus as the "Champion of the Giants" is enough to strike a nerve with Kratos and tip off Brok that something isn't quite right about the god. Once Atreus completes the mask it's "Tyr" suddenly remembering a "secret gate to Asgard" and offering to lead the charge that makes Brok call him out on his bullshit.
• Parental Neglect: Odin rarely, if ever gave his children any form of positive reinforcement or appreciation, let alone the time of day. Freya mentions to Kratos and Mimir that Baldur always wanted Odin's attention and approval and Thor wants it too which is why he even puts up with his mistreatment.
• Papa Wolf: Averted. When he shows up at Kratos' house he is mad about losing Baldur... But the way he talks about him makes it sounds like he's annoyed about losing a valuable employee than his own child.
• The Paranoiac: He's constantly on the lookout for threats and is obsessed with controlling everything and everyone. Granted he is aware of and trying to avert the prophecy of Ragnarök... but it's only out of a desperate desire to avoid dying.
• Pet the Dog:
  • According to Mimir he loved Thor's mother Fjörgyn despite her being a Giant and was genuinely sad when she passed away (which he didn't seem to be responsible for). He also seemed to legitimately love Freya for a while at the start of their marriage and granted her many wishes until he went back to being a cruel and abusive despot due to his obsession with Ragnarök and ambition regarding Vanir magic (although it's left ambiguous if he legitimately had a change of heart for a moment or was doing yet another manipulation tactic to make Freya teach him).
  • He explains to Atreus that new Einherjar come out of Valhalla "a little foggy" and he casts magic on them to restore their memories of their mortal lives to give them a sense of identity. Though this may just be a case of Pragmatic Villainy; the Einherjar are one of Odin's primary armies for Ragnarök, and given that killing them sends them right back to Valhalla as long as they died fighting in Odin's name, instilling a sense of loyalty in them ensures that they'll keep coming back to serve him again and again.
• Power Echoes: Odin gets these when he casts certain spells during the final battle with Kratos.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Ragnarök reveals the spectral ravens Odin uses to keep an eye on the realms are actually the souls of deceased children killed by their parents and tortured into obedience.
• Power Tattoo: The tattoos on his forearms are connected to his ravens. When one or both ravens are away the tattoos will disappear.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Odin may be a completely vile, controlling bastard but he's smart about it. This is one of his most dangerous qualities — he understands how to placate people by being charismatic, manipulative and reasonable in-person. Only once he's in no direct danger does he start plotting against them, and even then he generally waits until he's sure he'd have the upper hand.
  • He recognizes having an infamous god killer as an enemy is a very bad idea so he tries to convince Kratos to not pursue any conflict with him by essentially forgiving all his crimes against the Aesir and offers to get Freya off his back as well. Ironically his inability to recognize Kratos does not want Freya hurt despite her animosity towards him leads to this deal falling through as Kratos himself later notes in the journal that despite his reasonability joining Freya's ex-husband after all he did to her is unthinkable.
  • When Atreus visits Asgard, Odin is very welcoming to him, far more welcoming than the other Aesir who haven't forgotten what Atreus and his father did. Odin needs Atreus' help however and notes that he's given Atreus no reason to trust him so he takes steps to win it: he gives him a room to stay in, gives him books and a sword as gifts and tells him to come and go from Asgard as he pleases because he's a guest, not a prisoner.
  • He's shown to micromanage the duties of the other Aesir. This is not only because he's a Control Freak but because he likes to make sure they're doing their jobs properly and when they aren't he has them shape up.
  • In a backstory he took Mimir's advice to destroy a potentially dangerous Dwarven enterprise economically by undercutting their sales and rendering them bankrupt rather than his initial idea of military force. After all, dead people are a wasted resource but poor and desperate people can be coerced to work for you.
• Properly Paranoid: His collection of information regarding prophesies related to Ragnarök has made Odin quite aware of the many things that may come to pass and has taken steps to ensure to avert the prophesy or turn it in his favor. When Atreus asked Mimir how Odin knew where they were going so he sent Baldur after them Mimir replied that it didn't really matter how Odin knew their objective but what was important is that Odin was right about it.
• Psychological Projection: Listen to Odin's speech about how Kratos is an unloved deity and it becomes pretty clear it applies more to himself than Kratos; while Odin is a Villain with Good Publicity no one he's charmed or taken in with propaganda actually loves him but the front he puts up and everyone who really knows him loathes him. Kratos, on the other hand has people who genuinely love him for who he is; even as the Ghost of Sparta his fellow Spartans were eternally loyal to him as both their General and a God of War.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: King of the Aesir and according to the devs the greatest foe Kratos has ever faced. This is not an exaggeration - the final battle of Ragnarök sees him fight Kratos, Atreus and Freya simultaneously and by the end of the confrontation he's more winded than beaten.
  • Something that often gets overlooked is that Odin would’ve actually won against Kratos and Atreus if Freya hadn’t stepped in and saved them from his binding spell.
• Redemption Rejection: Even after everything Odin does Atreus still tries to spare him and gives him the option to "be better" like Kratos, Thor and many others. All it takes is four simple words for Atreus to finally realize people like Odin are beyond redemption and must be dealt with.
  Atreus: You have to stop. You can choose to be better...
  Odin: ...No I can't... I have to know what happens next. I... will never stop...
  Atreus: ... Why did you have to say that?...
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Odin designs himself as a deity of true omniscience and seeks out any potential threats to his rule. According to Mimir, Odin doesn't care how accurate he is in his claims but only if he's right about it — for example, he was wrong that Kratos was a giant and wanted to kickstart Ragnarok but he's right Kratos wants to go to Jotunheim and is a problem.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Dresses the part, preferring to wear billowing regal robes and a cape. When he's relaxing in Asgard he sports a Nordic fur cap to protect his head from the cold.
• Sadist: According to Mimir, Odin's been torturing him in his spare time every day for the past 109 winters after fusing him with a tree; apparently he's quite creative at it. He also tortured Freya after she fled both Asgard and Vanaheim by sealing her powers and trapping her in Midgard.
• Sadly Mythcharacterized / Sadly Mythtaken: He's portrayed as torturing Mimir when in the mythology they were close friends (and in some versions Mimir was even Odin's uncle) and Odin reanimated his severed head so he could always call upon his wisdom. He's portrayed as being genocidal towards giants in the game when in myths he had multiple children with giantesses, including Thor (and in fact Odin is a descendant of the Jotnar through Ymir himself; and some members of the Aesir are full-blooded Jotnar like Skadi). He's also portrayed as having abused his wife which has no basis even in myths purposefully re-written by Christians to demonize Norse deities and lionize Christ. The game also plays up his persona as a Control Freak and tyrant but the mythological Odin was also a sincere and passionate seeker of knowledge who even sacrificed himself to give Runes and magic to humankind (that's what that whole stabbing-himself-with-a-spear-and-hanging-from-Yggdrasil-thing was about in myth). This is all justified by the fact that in this universe the myths were Written by the Winners to make the Aesir look better than they are.
• Satanic Archetype: Odin is pretty much this in many ways.
  • He's shown to indulge in all Seven Deadly Sins, the four most prominent being Greed as he selfishly and obsessively pursues to obtain all knowledge for himself, Pride as he refuses to own up to any of his poor choices and keeps insisting that everything he's done is justified, Envy as he disdains anyone possessing more knowledge or magic than him and Wrath as he's prone to lashing out whenever things don't go his way such as when he killed Brok after he started pointing out the inconsistencies in his Tyr disguise and killed Thor because he didn't want to be Odin's weapon anymore.
  • Odin is a Sadist who enjoys tormenting others, shown by how he tortures Mimir for over a century, impersonates Tyr to make him look pathetic and cowardly out of petty spite, and taunts Freya when his disguise as Tyr is exposed.
  • One of Odin's greatest strengths is his abilities of deception, manipulation and disguise. However, instead of helping to provide clarity, he instead corrupts others by exploiting their flaws, drives people apart and views them as nothing more than tools for his own use. Odin can make himself appear as a kindly, humorous and affable grandfather figure to catch people off-guard, which is ideal for hiding his sadistic, power-hungry and sociopathic nature.
  • Odin wishes to be the sole ruler of all the Nine Realms, just as Satan wishes to rule both Heaven and Earth.
• Screw Destiny: If there's one thing that Odin has in common with Kratos as Mimir notes it's that they both believe fate can be rewritten and Odin does everything he can to prevent his supposed fate at Ragnarök. According to Mimir, even if Ragnarök can't be averted he still hopes to learn enough to influence the outcome in his favor.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
  • His actions to prevent Ragnarök or at least control it gave everyone a reason to fight him and the Aesir. It begs the question: if Odin didn't know about the prophecy would Ragnarök still happen? The answer it seems is no, it would not have. As the Norns spell out there is no "destiny" or "fate"; Ragnarok is just the logical, easily inferred endpoint of Odin's selfishness, cruelty, refusal to change, obsession with controlling that which can't be controlled and him losing everything because his abuse drives away his loved ones and causes the realms to rise up against him.
  • His ultimate motivation for doing all of this is one in itself. His existence as part of what created the Nine Realms in the first place has him unsure if he is Barred from the Afterlife or if he even has one, and for all of his knowledge and foresight he cannot find a concrete answer. He is relentless in his pursuit of answers to this mystery, culminating in him killing Brok which in turn ends with his soul destroyed by Sindri. Ultimately it was never a question if Odin had an afterlife — his Laser-Guided Karma ensured he'd never have the chance to see it in the first place.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Odin's proven on multiple occasions to suffer all of them.
  • Pride: Only has the desire to learn the truth of all creation just so he can have the power to himself and believes it should just be his.
  • Greed: Wants all knowledge no matter how big or small for himself and will do anything to keep it that way.
  • Wrath: Loses his composure at even the slightest inconvenience which proves frightening and devastating.
  • Lust: Is only interested in anyone or anything for their usefulness and value to him.
  • Envy: Jealous of those who possess greater abilities than him such as Atreus.
  • Gluttony: Gorges himself on secrets and refuses to genuinely share what he's learned.
  • Sloth: Prefers letting others do the work for him rather than doing it himself.
• Shapeshifting Seducer: How Odin was able to part Freyr from Ingrid as Odin learned an enchantment would only allow him to part with his sword if he either died in battle or gave it to his One True Love; rather than cause another incident that could lead to war by further attacking Freyr more than the Aesir already had Odin instead transformed into someone so beautiful and attractive to Freyr's tastes that Freyr unknowingly surrendered Ingrid after being seduced.
• Shadow Archetype: It's hinted at in the 2018 game but Ragnarök solidifies Odin as one to Atreus/Loki. Atreus is a naturally curious person who eagerly learns all he can about the worlds and stories around him but tends to speak and act without careful thinking and is not above lying to others, including his own father when he believes he is in the right. He also grows extremely invested in defying fate. Odin shares these traits but takes them to even more terrifying levels which may play a part in the two being quite cordial once Atreus heads to Midgard. However, Atreus differs from Odin in key details: he's capable of acknowledging his shortcomings and mistakes and truly cares for and loves others, neither of which Odin proves capable of. Ultimately Atreus is able to resist the temptation of possibly infinite knowledge whereas Odin cannot give up his obsessions to the point of death.
• Signature Item Clue: Raven feathers left behind from his preferred method of teleportation. His impersonation as the fake Tyr is foreshadowed from the moment Kratos and Atreus first meet him with raven feathers somehow being present within the sealed prison cell. More of these feathers can be spotted if the player peeks inside the broom closet "Tyr" uses as a bedroom within Sindri's house.
• The Sociopath: Let's go through the checklist shall we?
  • He shows absolutely no regard for those around him except as they are useful. Even his own children are classified by what they do for him and no more; he only ever speaks of Baldur in context of him being a tracker and actively tries to sabotage Thor's attempts to become a functional person because those traits interfere with Thor's "use" as something that kills what Odin points at.
  • He's a major control freak whose desire to understand everything in the Nine Realms is largely based on a desire to manipulate them, and when confronted with something beyond his control, he immediately tries to destroy it.
  • He's a compulsive liar with no shame whatsoever in telling even the most ridiculous falsehoods or even believing them himself if it suits him; as Mimir puts it, he seeks to have utter control of subjective reality and disregards the idea of objective reality because he can't control it. His entire persona is a 24/7 lie, tailored to manipulate whoever he's spending time with at the moment and changing on a dime in different company.
  • He has incredible superficial charisma but regularly makes slip-ups revealing he has no understanding of how people fundamentally work — note how he torpedoes his negotiation with Kratos by assuming that Kratos would want Freya dead when he actually sympathizes with her.
  • He is incredibly passive-aggressive even when trying to act nice, compulsively hurting people by poking at emotional sore spots.
  • He never accepts blame for anything no matter how minor the mistake or how obvious his culpability was to the point he blames Kratos for killing Thor while Odin's spear is still stuck in Thor's body.
  • While he, unlike most sociopaths is quite good at long-term planning he still has a tendency to screw his plans up with impulsive violence as soon as something goes wrong.
  • And finally he is utterly incapable of change, something he admits to Atreus after the final battle.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: When in conversation Odin comes off as a friendly old grandfatherly figure but it's clear really quickly he's actually a sadistic Control Freak who does nothing but lie through his teeth at every opportunity and will screw over anyone who gets in his way at the earliest convenience. Mimir even points this out with what would be an absurd metaphor ordinarily (saying "If he says the snow is white, he's lying") ends up being frighteningly accurate to the way he operates.
• Something Only They Would Say: Along with other oddities in behavior when he's disguised as Tyr what really tips Brok off that something is wrong is when Odin slips and starts referring to Atreus as Loki.
• Sore Loser: Putting it mildly he doesn't like losing or being denied. He orchestrated Skaði's patricide because she rejected his advances and had Hrimthur murdered because he bested him in a wager, then took his horse Svaðilfari as compensation. The most extreme examples were the Aesir-Vanir war and his current plan to defy fate because he's destined to die during Ragnarök. And when Thor finally works up the nerve to stand up to him Odin is so filled with rage he immediately kills him.
• Spiteful Spit: When Kratos and Atreus first row into the dwarven village in Svartalheim there's a dwarf above the duo on a bridge who proceeds to spit in their direct path. According to the game developer this dwarf is actually Odin in disguise - showing contempt for the God of War and his son.
• Staff of Authority: When he's not using it as a weapon, Gungnir takes the form of a collapsible walking stick that he uses to make himself look important.
• Static Character: Played for drama. Odin absolutely refuses to change his ways and is always on the lookout for ways that others can be altered to suit him. And with the Norns' revelation that the only way to Screw Destiny is Character Development this means that his attempts to stop Ragnarok were always doomed because he was willing to do anything to prevent it... except the one thing that would actually work.
• Strong and Skilled: What sets Odin apart isn't raw power (physical or magical) or experience, it is that Odin has both and uses them very well. His boss battle has him regularly shift between using magic and his spear Gungnir, but whenever Kratos starts a grapple, Odin actually overpowers and reverses the hold, a feat less than a handful of Kratos's opponents have accomplished.
• Stronger Than They Look: In developer notes, he is described as the most powerful adversary Kratos has ever had to face, even being Zeus's better despite looking like an ordinary frail old man. And sure enough, when he does throw down with the heroes as the Final Boss, Odin can fight Kratos, Atreus, and Freya simultaneously fairly well. In fact, every QTE event that has Kratos try to grapple Odin has Odin break out and reverse the grip on him instead and Kratos struggles greatly to break himself out and probably would have failed to do so if it wasn't for Atreus and Freya's help in breaking Odin's hold on him.
• Supreme Chef: He's actually a capable cook, as testified by Kratos and his group during his guise as Tyr and can instantly tell when someone is cooking mushrooms just by the smell.
• Surrounded by Idiots: To a degree it's clear Odin finds his underlings lacking, and it's why he welcomes Atreus to serve him. Thor is a crippling alcoholic whom Odin has abused into thinking he's an idiot; Heimdall is his most reliable servant but also an abrasive asshole who comes close to murdering people Odin needs for his plans; Baldur was his best tracker, but it's clear their relationship was contentious at best considering he resented his family's war-like tendencies and the god's curse made him completely insane; and he considers Magni and Modi to be "useless". Then finally his own Valkyries turned on him except for three of them. Of course, Odin is blind to how he's responsible for their various character flaws and his more reliable allies turning on him by constantly abusing them or using them like tools to gain power. Mimir, Brok, Sindri, Freya and Atreus were all allied with him at different points before wising up and walking away, leaving him stuck in this mindset.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For the series' version of Zeus. While Odin and Zeus shared similarities in their roles as leader of their respective pantheons, in terms of personality they were incredibly different; common depictions of Odin presented him as fairly benevolent, and while he did have a darker side, he was willing to use his vast wisdom and intellect to help mortals. This takes on Odin depicts him as a ruthless paranoiac desperate to preserve his rule and willing to slaughter anyone who would stand in his way, just like Zeus in the Greek entries.

T-Z

• Taught by Experience: He saw Mimir's "Mystic Well of Knowledge" trick as a lesson in wisdom, especially after it led him into trying to gouge out his own eyes. He never forgave Mimir for this and when he bound him to a tree, the first thing he did was rip out one of Mimir's eyes.
• Teleportation: Odin's preferred method of travel is using a magical swarm of ravens to teleport himself and other people. It even works to travel to other realms in seconds, something which is explicitly stated to be impossible without gateways or the realm travel room in Týr's Temple. The best example of this is when he teleports both himself and Atreus from Asgard to Svartalfheim and back again with the same ease as walking to another room in your house.
• They Look Like Everyone Else: Compared to the rest of his family, let alone the Greek pantheon, he's fairly mundane looking, basically just looking like someone's grandpa. Making it worse, he's really good at hiding the depths of his selfishness and cruelty, masking his less-than-noble tendencies under an affable facade.
• Too Clever by Half: He lusts for knowledge and control but thinks too highly of himself and is described by Mimir as being too smart for his own good. At the game's beginning, Odin is at least smart enough to recognize that having Kratos as an enemy is a bad call, considering what Kratos had already done as the Ghost of Sparta. And when he can't manipulate Kratos, Odin turns to Atreus instead. That being said, Odin is so confident that he can manipulate Atreus that he never considers what might happen if Atreus ever turned on him too.
• Top God: He is the Norse Pantheon's version of Zeus, being the leader and (seemingly) the most powerful member of the pantheon.
• Torture Technician: Apparently. Mimir claims Odin tortured him every day for 109 years and never lacked imagination in it. Mimir finds having his head chopped off in order to be revived the preferable option.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Zigzagged. On the one hand, Odin is a petty, cruel and capricious Sadist who manipulates and abuses his own family (especially Thor) and threw the Nine Realms into chaos with hardly a thought. On the other hand, his motivation is at the very least understandable; he seeks answers to questions even he can't answer, namely what happens to him after he's dead due to his nature as the Top God. The thought of his Cessation of Existence also drove him mad with fear and paranoia over the centuries and his lustful pursuit of knowledge cost him his eye (or so he'd have you believe). But then of course, even with this in mind, it doesn't excuse his poor treatment of the other races, his blatant disregard for the lives of others and the sheer destruction he causes all in the name of "wisdom." But once again, Atreus, Thrud and even Freya come to pity him by the end, recognizing he's a victim of his own madness and desperation; he even dies a pitiful death because of his own inability to stop seeking answers. His Villainous Breakdown is also quite tragic, but as Atreus himself notes, his downfall came at his own doing. Ultimately, the All-Father is just as much a victim of himself as everyone else is, but it doesn't make him completely sympathetic.
• Trickster God: Odin prefers to use trickery and manipulation to get what he wants rather than direct combat like shapeshifting into a beautiful woman to get Freyr's sword and indirectly convincing Kratos and Atreus to search for Týr so he could disguise himself as him and influence his opponents from the inside.
• Truer to the Text: Downplayed. Different from the myths, Odin in the games is vile, abusive to his family, brutal, tyrannical, and selfish with his knowledge, hiding it instead of sharing it with humanity. On the other hand, however, his mischievous, cunning, knowledge-seeking and Trickster God traits receive much more emphasis in here than in modern media, especially the versions influenced by Germanic romanticism during the 19th century. Odin in the Eddas was a shapeshifting trickster that avoided direct combat and often fought dishonorably through subterfuges, disguises and treachery to achieve his goals — such as how he stole the Mead of Poetry or when he was implied to have disguised himself as a ferryman and traded insults with Thor, boasting to his son about his thefts, the women he seduced or forced to sleep with him and the wars he caused — and thus seldom was the fatherly, selfless and glorious warrior-king seen in much later versions like in The Mighty Thor, to the point that some of his alias and alternate names are "evildoer" and "battle-merry". His connection with spellcasting and wizardry is also much more focused on, as Odin in mythology was a god also associated with Seiðr magic alongside Freya, and his appearance as a wanderer can even be considered one of the main inspirations for the classic portrayal of wizards as wandering long-bearded old men wearing cloaks and broad-brimmed hats, particularly influencing Gandalf.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: To the point where the official cosplay guide calls him "god of titles."
  Lunda: Take your pick- All-Father, Raven King, Lord of the Hanged, Big Daddy High Muckety-Muck of all the Aesir - to us he'll always be this fucking guy.
• Unseen No More: Odin is offscreen for all of the 2018 game, sending his agents on Asgard's behalf while never intervening himself. He finally appears in the sequel Ragnarök as the Big Bad proper.
• The Unfettered: Odin will do anything to achieve his goals; if it means he has to commit atrocities, lie through his teeth or do other unsavory deeds he will not care as long as he achieves his goals.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In some myths he is the father of Tyr and Heimdall. Absolutely no mention of Odin being related to either is made in the series' Norse saga.
• Unreliable Narrator: Tells Atreus a very different story than Mimir's on how he lost his eye which the latter attributes to Odin being a liar who has to lie about everything, no matter how small just to demonstrate his power over reality.
• Viler New Villain: Odin is this compared to Zeus, who while a Jerkass God himself technically only came to be such a malevolent force after being possessed by released evils and turned into a deluded mess; Odin on the other hand has no such excuse as he is voluntarily in denial of his actions yet still keeps creating misery for no other reason than because he's afraid of the consequences and the things he does to refuse facing them would have even Zeus consider them a step too far.
• Villain Ball:
  • He had Brok and Sindri build a statue of Thor to put Mimir's eye in a chest in the Thor statue rather than keeping the eye on his person. Granted he didn't know the Bifrost eyes both Mimir and Týr possessed could be used to open the gateway to Jotunheim and if he had he probably wouldn't have let Mimir keep the ones he possessed.
  • Using Midgardian refugees during Ragnarök; not only do the Einherjar return as soon as they are killed but even the expected result of innocent deaths demoralizing the heroes doesn't work as they shift tactics to save whomever they can. All this results in is everyone finally admitting there's ultimately nothing good or decent about Odin, especially turning Thrúd and Sif against him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Deconstructed. The Aesir and other natural inhabitants of Asgard begrudgingly have a great deal of loyalty to Odin as he is their ruler and protects their realm. Unfortunately rumors do travel and he's virtually transparent with how much of a scumbag he is to the point everyone's too afraid to speak up; this results in them finding alternative targets and only alienating themselves from possible outside help. By the time of Asgard's fall and Odin's death they've finally had enough to where most of them give up fighting in his name when all is said and done.
• Villainous Breakdown: After losing the faith of his family by murdering Thor in front of his daughter he really breaks down for good when Atreus, rather than put on the mask for the rift breaks it in half with his bare hands, ranting at the boy to ask what his search for knowledge was all for.
  Odin: Why did you do that?! What was it all for?! YOU CHOOSE TO BE NOTHING?! [...] You've ruined everything! Everything I worked for! Everything I killed for! I just wanted answers! [...] If you'd just played your part, none of this would have happened! What was it all for? Answer me, Loki! WHAT'S IT ALL FOR?!
• Villain Has a Point: When Sif finds out Heimdall has been killed by Kratos she attempts to kill Atreus in retribution. Odin actually steps in to protect Atreus, explaining Kratos was the one to actually do the deed and Atreus shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of his father and telling her about Thor getting drunk again without any prompting. Not that Odin gives a shit of course.
• Villainous Valour: Odin is always looking for a way out despite the odds against him. When Freya has him by the neck he distracts her with a raven and undoes the magic choking him. Even after getting beaten down by three gods Odin still has the strength to overpower Kratos before Freya and Atreus intervene. He refuses even unto death to surrender or change his ways.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Odin himself doesn't expose much on how he views emotional ties between others, and even seems to hold some love for his closer blood relations in Asgard, albeit twisted into the most self-serving and poisonous expression of such possible by his own character flaws, but the way he treats it as a tool to manipulate his enemies into serving his goals without knowing it certainly gives this impression.
  • He preys on Kratos' parental love and desire to protect Atreus being so stifling that it will only serve to drive the boy towards helping him in Asgard, revealing his searching for Týr behind Kratos' back during the 'peace talks' precisely to spark further conflicts between the father-son duo, further exacerbating this tension in his disguise as Týr later on, and later tries to dissuade Kratos from any rash actions in trying to get him back by highlighting Atreus' intelligence and capability on his own.
  • He manipulates both Kratos and his allies by appealing to their better natures as Týr, pointing out that they are risking violent and destructive collateral damage by sparking all-out war with Odin, something Kratos in particular wants to move away from, and tries to get them to seek non-violent alternatives whenever discussing option in their Home Base, switching to playing on their guilty consciences if his straightforward approach is rebuffed.
  • Mimir disgustedly Lampshades that his ploy of manipulating both sides of the conflict as Odin of Asgard and Týr was only possible because he depended on them possessing sympathy towards the apparent damage done to the norse war god through his long years of captivity. They left him alone and isolated in his solitude inside the broom closet for large lengths of time and never considered how suspicious his absence was out of sympathetic understanding from their own emotional scars, several of which were caused or related to Odin himself.
    Mimir: How did he do it? How did that mad bastard keep us from sniffing him out for so long? Planting a raven in the broom closet was audacious enough...he also had to keep us from looking inside whilst he was away in Asgard. That addled act of his, the damage he performed, all a story crafted to render it beyond questioning how long he'd spend locked away in there. He counted on us to be sympathetic instead of skeptical. I'll never believe compassion is a weakness, but he sure used it as one.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: He can completely disguise himself as someone else with them none-the-wiser and does so as Tyr for a majority of the game. The post-game Aesir prison that lands in Niflheim also shows that he can disguise himself as a Light and Dark Elf (possibly to prolong the elven war so they don't ally together for Ragnarök), a Traveller (which he likely used to influence his Traveller followers, already finding a way to Jotunheim), and a dwarf (which he uses briefly to spit on Kratos and Atreus from a bridge as they enter Nidavellier, as well as yet more political influencing no doubt). His limitation is having to keep these people alive to shapeshift into them, hence why they're all found in the prison.
• War God: The principal god of war in the Norse pantheon (yes, even over Týr), who embodies the furious bloodlust of battle and death, which makes him quite similar to Ares in that respect. On another note, Odin's status as the god of war also embodies the Old Norse warrior ideal of Drengskapr in that he's bloodthirsty, warlike and a bit of a braggart — though he's fully capable of backing up his boasts, being a mighty warrior.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Mimir. Odin hired Mimir as his advisor and the two become close companions, until Mimir realized just how obsessive and manipulative Odin truly was, and Odin didn't appreciate Mimir suddenly gaining sympathy for those he hurt and as such, inprisoned him in a tree. Mimir, throughout both games, talks with utter contempt of Odin and never misses an oppurtunity to mention how evil Odin is. In Ragnarök, Odin is much better at hiding his feelings, but when he talks to or about Mimir, there's nothing short of spite in his voice.
  Odin: [to Kratos] Shit, I'll even sweeten the deal. I'll let you keep the prisoner I know you stole. [Beat] That's right! I know you're in here somewhere, you silver-tongued little shit!
• World's Strongest Man: In this case the strongest Norse god. He is known as the King of the Aesir, the Top God of Norse mythology and is considered Kratos' most formidable opponent yet by the developers. What makes Odin stand out is not just his physical and magical strength but also his ability to use them effectively in battle. During the boss fight he alternates between using magic and his spear Gungnir. He is even able to match several of Kratos' grapples or even push them back, a feat only a few of Kratos' previous opponents have managed to achieve. However, Kratos had just fought through Odin's army and against Thor, possibly the physically strongest Norse god as hinted by official sources; whilst Odin's mastery of magic is easily the best in the Nine Realms, his outright might is likely below Kratos', if only by a small margin.
• Would Hit a Girl: Not only did Odin abuse Freya after their marriage and inflict gruesome pain on her for abandoning him, he even smashes Thrúd away with Mjolnir of all things after he kills her father Thor in front of her.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Aside from his assault of young Thrúd, Mimir says Thor's physical abuse of Magni and Moði was a cycle passed down from father to son, implying Odin himself might have beat Thor in the past.
  • His final fight with Kratos and Atreus shows he doesn't pull his punches with the young boy either— in fact, his Boss Banter throughout the second round is primarily aimed at him, implying Odin is more focused on attacking Atreus over his destruction of the mask with Kratos getting between them to protect his son.
  • There's also the revelation that the spectral ravens in the "Eyes of Odin" quest are the enslaved souls of children sacrificed in his name which he seemed to have absolutely no qualms with.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Near the end Kratos finally gets through to Thor on how to be a better person and Thor realizes that Odin will never love him and only views him as a tool. Odin commands Thor to kill Kratos, and after Thor refuses Odin stabs him with his spear while crying out that he didn't want to have to do it.
• Xanatos Gambit: Odin is a master at this as demonstrated by his negotiations in Kratos' house at the start of the game. The hoped for outcome is to have Kratos accept the offers of peace so that neither side goes to war, almost certainly averting Ragnarök. If Kratos rejects them (which he does) Odin correctly guesses he'll go after Týr because Odin intentionally appears keen for them to not find him: in that case Odin will disguise himself as Tyr so he can infiltrate their decision-making away from open war after he's "freed". In either case, Odin has also sewn the seeds of mistrust by revealing Atreus was looking for Týr behind Kratos' back, then has a secret conversation with Atreus where he extends an invitation to Asgard, so Kratos has reason to believe Atreus isn't telling him everything that happened between them. They will thus drive themselves apart and Atreus will accept Odin's invitation to Asgard thus gaining himself a valuable ally and robbing Kratos of one.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Since Odin’s entire motivation and M.O. is to outmaneuver what he only actually wants to be immutable fate, he’s become astoundingly adept at adjusting his stratagems to unforeseen variables , turning setbacks into opportunities, such as using Kratos’s defeat of the Valkyries to unleash Valhalla’s warrior dead as a standing army, or noting Atreus’s interest in Týr and demanding he stop but also impersonate Týr to infiltrate Kratos’s fledgling alliance.
• You Monster!: Despite everything Odin had done to the realms he calls Kratos terrible for the destruction he wrought in Greece.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The ultimate tragedy of his character is that he, specifically, can't. Others can, but for all of Odin's desperate attempts to avert his fate, he will never do so because of his inability to acknowledge his own flaws. Every attempt he ever made to avert Ragnarok only cemented its certainty because he was willing to do any evil thing for it... but wouldn't even consider being kind and trusting in others, which was the only thing that would've actually worked.

---